Boeing's Starliner ready to head home to Earth today

2 weeks ago 22

a white space capsule is seen through a spacecraft window, with earth in the background

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port at the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA)

Boeing's Starliner capsule is ready to come home at long last.

The two NASA astronauts who rode Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS), Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, "have finished packing Starliner with cargo and configuring its cabin for return," NASA officials announced in an update on Thursday (Sept. 5).

"The duo closed Starliner's hatch for the final time Thursday afternoon, readying the spacecraft for its uncrewed departure," they added.

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As that update noted, Williams and Wilmore won't be coming down with Starliner; the capsule will land uncrewed just after midnight Saturday (Sept. 7) in New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor, if all goes according to plan.

You can watch the undocking and the landing live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA.

The touchdown will wrap up Starliner's first-ever astronaut mission, Crew Flight Test (CFT), which launched on June 5 and arrived at the ISS a day later. Starliner suffered several issues before docking, however — notably, helium leaks and the failure of five of its 28 reaction control system (RCS) thrusters.

CFT was supposed to last just 10 days or so, but NASA kept extending the test mission to study the helium leaks and thruster issue in more detail. Ultimately, the agency decided that flying Williams and Wilmore home on Starliner posed an unacceptable risk, so the duo will stay in orbit for a while longer — until February 2025, when they'll come home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

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That Crew Dragon hasn't left the ground yet; it's scheduled to lift off on Sept. 24, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS. (Crew Dragon missions usually carry four astronauts, but this one had to make room for Williams and Wilmore on the downward leg.)

Saturday morning's touchdown will be the third for Starliner to date. The first came in May 2019, after an unsuccessful uncrewed flight to the ISS; the capsule suffered several glitches and failed to meet up with the orbiting lab as planned. The second landing, in May 2022, wrapped up a successful uncrewed test mission to the ISS.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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