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Boeing’s Starliner Lands Successfully, but Without Its Astronauts on Board

The troubled spacecraft conducted a “bull’s-eye landing,” but NASA officials still say they made the right decision to leave its astronauts on the ISS out of an abundance of caution

Margherita Bassi

Daily Correspondent

September 9, 2024

Calypso Starliner capsule with parachutes — Boeing Starliner's capsule Calypso deploys parachutes during its descent toward Earth late at night on September 6. NASA

At 6:04 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and began the six-hour re-entry trip toward Earth. Late that evening, Calypso—Starliner’s capsule—deployed parachutes and successfully touched down in the desert of White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, NASA announced in a statement.

“Great landing of Calypso!” NASA astronaut Suni Williams said, per Space.com’s Mike Wall. “I don’t think that could have gone better.”

There was one catch, however: Calypso landed without its astronauts. Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who together piloted Starliner in its first crewed test mission to the ISS in June, cheered its re-entry from orbit, still aboard the station.

After Starliner experienced helium leaks and issues with its reaction control thrusters during its June approach to the ISS, NASA opted to return the craft in autonomous mode—leaving its astronauts behind.

Despite months of investigations into the problems—which cost the company $125 million, per Reuters’ Joey Roulette—NASA decided a crewed re-entry would be too risky. Instead, Williams and Wilmore will catch a ride home on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft in February. What was supposed to be an eight-day stay at the ISS for the astronauts has now turned into eight months.

“I think going from six months to 12 months is tough,” says NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, describing his own unexpectedly extended stay at the ISS, to CBS News’ William Harwood. “But it’s not as tough as going from eight days to eight months.”

Both Williams and Wilmore, however, have previously conducted long-duration stays in space. Dana Weigel, manager of the International Space Station, says they are adapting well to the circumstances, per BBC News’ Rebecca Morelle, Alison Francis and Michael Sheils McNamee. The astronauts are exercising and have all the supplies they need, thanks to resupply missions.

Starliner’s successful landing comes as a relief for Boeing, whose Starliner craft—even before its problematic approach to the ISS in June—has faced a long series of setbacks, delays and budget overruns since NASA awarded the company a $4.2 billion contract in 2014 to carry astronauts in its Commercial Crew Program.

“It would have been a safe, successful landing with the crew on board,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told reporters, per Space.com. “It was a bull’s-eye landing, a great landing out at White Sands.”

He maintains, however, that NASA “made the right decision” by erring on the side of caution and conducting the re-entry uncrewed.

Boeing's Starliner Spacecraft Approaches the ISS — Boeing's Starliner spacecraft approaches the International Space Station. NASA

Starliner is now headed toward NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where engineers will continue investigations, per the statement. Scientists won’t be able to study the spacecraft’s faulty components directly, however, because the section with the thrusters was ejected—according to plan—just before Starliner’s re-entry, per the Associated Press’ Marcia Dunn.

Boeing did not attend the press conference after the landing. Instead, the company’s vice president Mark Nappi says in a statement that Boeing will “review the data and determine the next steps for the program.”

Starliner’s crewed test mission was supposed to be the final step before the vehicle becomes officially certified to regularly taxi crewed missions to the ISS. But NASA doesn’t intend to quit working with Boeing.

“Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft uncrewed, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible,” Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, says in the agency’s statement. “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.”