Watch Boeing’s Starliner Return to Earth Today Without Astronauts

Boeing’s Starliner capsule is set to leave the International Space Station (ISS) today, September 6, in a significant milestone for the program. The capsule will return to Earth without astronauts on board, marking an important phase in its development.

A livestream showcasing Starliner’s departure will begin at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT) with the capsule undocking scheduled for 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT). Viewers can tune in to the event through NASA Television, which will also cover the capsule’s landing later on.

The landing, which is planned for White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, is awaited at approximately 12:03 a.m. EDT (0403 GMT or 10:03 p.m. local time on September 6). NASA will start the livestream for this event at 10:50 p.m. EDT (0250 GMT).

This marks the conclusion of Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT), Boeing’s first crewed mission to the ISS. The CFT was launched on June 5 and successfully docked with the ISS on June 6, although the process was not without complications, including a halt to an initial docking attempt.

Prior to launch, the Starliner faced issues with helium leaks and during docking, five of its 28 thrusters became inoperative. Originally planned as a 10-day mission, NASA extended the CFT’s duration to approximately three months. This extension allowed for detailed ground and space evaluations of Starliner’s propulsion system.

Due to safety concerns, NASA made the decision to return the CFT’s astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, via a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, scheduled for February 2025. Consequently, today, the Starliner will make the journey back to Earth uncrewed.

Boeing, along with SpaceX, received substantial contracts from NASA in 2014 to develop commercial vehicles for astronaut transport following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011. The expectation was that commercial crew flights would begin as early as 2017, but a series of technical and funding delays pushed back SpaceX’s human missions to 2020, while the Starliner program faced an additional four years before launching the CFT.

Key figures at NASA and Boeing have acknowledged the complexity involved in such development projects, emphasizing that timelines can frequently change due to the inherent uncertainties involved in aerospace testing. As the implications of the recent challenges faced during the CFT are examined, it remains to be seen how they might impact the certification process of the Starliner.

The first uncrewed test flight of the Starliner in 2019 faced difficulties and did not achieve its goal of docking with the ISS due to technical difficulties. This required the rectification of multiple issues and led to significant delays, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020.

In contrast, the second uncrewed test flight in 2022 proceeded more smoothly, successfully docking with the ISS despite some thruster problems. Investigations are ongoing to understand the relationship between issues encountered during this flight and those faced during the CFT.

Originally scheduled for launch in 2023, the CFT faced further delays linked to problems with parachute designs and electrical wiring proceedings. The first attempt to launch the CFT on May 6, 2024, was postponed due to issues with a valve on the rocket, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. Additionally, a helium leak detected in one of the Starliner thrusters during inspections necessitated a safety investigation.

The leak was not considered an immediate threat to launch, but it revealed a design weakness where multiple thrusters failing could impact a re-entry mode. Consequently, NASA certified a new re-entry mode following extensive ground simulations with the astronauts of the CFT team.

Further attempts for launch saw a second scrub due to a ground equipment malfunction. Eventually, the Starliner successfully embarked on its mission during its third launch attempt on June 5, 2024.