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Boeing's Starliner Returns to Earth Without Crew After Completing ISS Mission

Boeing's Starliner Returns to Earth Without Crew After Completing ISS Mission

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NASA and Boeing made adjustments to the Starliner's departure sequence to reduce the risk of overheating and increase the spacecraft's distance from the International Space Station. The Starliner undocked from the ISS at 6:04 pm EDT on Friday, September 6, and began a series of maneuvers to move away from the station. However, the spacecraft returned to Earth empty, with astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore remaining on the ISS. The decision to leave the astronauts behind was made by NASA due to concerns about the risk of overheating and malfunctions with the spacecraft's thrusters. The Starliner landed safely at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 4:03 am GMT on Saturday, September 7.

Sunita Williams
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1. We have your back and you've got this, bring her back to Earth. Good luck.
Brandi Dean
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1. Well done to the entire team … welcome home, Calypso.
Ken Bowersox
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1. NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible.
Steve Stich
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
1. NASA looks forward to our continued work with the Boeing team to proceed toward certification of Starliner for crew rotation missions to the space station.
2. There are teams starting to look at what we do to get the vehicle fully certified in the future.
3. After we get the vehicle back, we'll go through a couple months of post-flight analysis.
4. They understand the importance now of moving on and... getting the vehicle back safely.
5. Then, after that, we really are going to just stay in some very benign attitudes and not fire the the thrusters very much at all.
6. It's a quicker way to get away from the station, with less stress on the thrusters.
7. We are excited to have Starliner home safely. This was an important test flight for NASA in setting us up for future missions with Boeing.
8. Essentially, once we open the hooks, the springs will push Starliner away and then we'll do some really short thruster firings to put us on a trajectory that will take us above the station and behind, we'll be opening to a nice range to where we can execute the deorbit burn.
Tanya Harrison
University of British Columbia
1. At the same time this is a highly trained crew that knows that stuff like this can happen … they're trained, they're ready.
2. It must be demoralising in a way when you've gone expecting to be up there for eight days and suddenly your mission turns into eight months.

Boeing's Starliner Returns to Earth Without Crew After Completing ISS Mission

Boeing Starliner

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