NASA has confirmed the homecoming date for Boeing's Starliner capsule, with plans for its departure from the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for no earlier than Friday, September 6, contingent upon favourable weather and the absence of technical difficulties.
If all proceeds as expected, the capsule will undock at 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT) on September 6, before landing via parachutes approximately six hours later at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
A Mission of Firsts and Challenges
Starliner was launched on June 5: That is its first crewed mission with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, NASA astronauts. Malfunctions occurred on the subsequent day when the capsule was supposed to dock with the ISS: it docked, however. In its flight, Starliner had a series of helium leak and five out of the 28 reaction control system thrusters failed to function properly.
The mission, designated Crew Flight Test (CFT), was originally planned to last around ten days. However, NASA and Boeing decided to extend Starliner's stay in orbit to investigate the thruster issues further. They want to determine their origin and assess whether similar problems might arise during the return journey.
Ultimately, NASA deemed it too hazardous to have Williams and Wilmore return aboard Starliner. Instead, the agency announced over the weekend that the astronauts would instead return on a SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled for February next year.
Uncrewed Boeing Starliner Faces Critical Test
The Dragon spacecraft will launch two astronauts to the ISS on the Crew-9 mission next month. Starliner will also launch, returning to Earth uncrewed. Following a flight readiness review conducted jointly by NASA and Boeing, the departure date for Starliner has been finalized.
NASA officials have announced that the uncrewed Starliner will achieve a fully autonomous return. Flight controllers will be monitoring the mission from both the Starliner Mission Control in Houston and Boeing's Mission Control Centre in Florida. They also noted that ground teams can remotely command the spacecraft if necessary. This ensures the spacecraft will undock, re-enter, and land with a parachute in the southwestern United States—and all of this is done safely.
It should also be noted that this will not be Starliner's first autonomous return. The capsule successfully completed two previous uncrewed test flights. The first was in December 2019; the second was in May 2022. While it did not reach the ISS during the first mission, it successfully accomplished this goal during the latter.