Last Updated on 07/09/2024 by Arun jain
Wilmore and Williams were on hand to assist with the Starliner’s departure from the space station.
“We’ve got your back, and you’ve got it,” Williams radioed to mission controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston before the capsule’s undocking. “Bring it back to Earth. Good luck.”
Starliner’s return journey will be closely watched, as it marks the end of a dramatic few months for Boeing and NASA. The test flight was to demonstrate that the spacecraft could reliably ferry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit, paving the way for NASA to certify Boeing for regular trips to the space station.
Instead, the thruster issues became the latest major setback for Boeing’s Starliner program, which was more than $1.5 billion over budget and years behind schedule before launch. An uncrewed test flight that NASA required of Boeing before it could carry astronauts also went awry the first time, and the company had to repeat it in 2022.
NASA officials said earlier this week that the space agency is working with Boeing on modifications to the Starliner’s thrusters. Additional analysis will be conducted once the vehicle is back and engineers have had a chance to evaluate how it performed.
To account for a possible thruster malfunction as the Starliner began its home trip, flight controllers modified the capsule’s normal undocking procedure. After separating from the space station, the Starliner flew autonomously away from the station to keep it safe in case something went wrong.
Preliminary data showed the thrusters performed well on all 12 scheduled burns as it retreated, according to NASA.
In a few hours, at 11:17 pm ET, Starliner’s engines will perform a 59-second “de-orbit burn” to slow the spacecraft and send it plummeting through Earth’s atmosphere. As it approaches its landing site in New Mexico, parachutes will deploy to slow the capsule, and airbags will deploy beneath the spacecraft to cushion its touchdown.
For Boeing, the successful return of its Starliner capsule may be bittersweet. If all went smoothly, it suggests NASA astronauts could have flown home safely on the spacecraft, although top agency officials voted unanimously to call SpaceX for the return flight to minimize the risk of additional failures.
Boeing developed its Starliner spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was launched in 2011 to support privately built space vehicles to fill the gap left by NASA’s retired space shuttles. Rival company SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the same program and has been conducting regular flights to and from the space station since 2020.
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