Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth without a crew

Boeing’s ailing Starliner landed without a crew at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico late Friday, ending a three-month test mission with technical problems that forced the astronauts it had flown to the International Space Station (ISS) to stay there until the next one. year.

The spacecraft left the ISS earlier Friday, bound for Earth without astronauts, after Nasa deemed the risk too great.

The century-old aerospace giant’s reputation has been damaged by the booster malfunctions and helium leaks its spacecraft encountered en route to the orbital outpost in June, and the US space agency’s subsequent decision to fly its crew back to a rival SpaceX Crew Dragon . year.

“It’s time to bring Calypso home,” astronaut Suni Williams told mission control, using the spacecraft’s nickname. “We’ve got your back and you’ve got this, bring her back to Earth. Good luck.”

The Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without incident, a Nasa live broadcast showed, completing the critical final phase of its mission.

The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at an orbital speed of approximately 27,400 km/h. About 45 minutes later, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated a series of airbags moments before landing in the arid desert in New Mexico.

Nasa chose to bring the shuttle home without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Williams despite Boeing’s assurances of a safe flight.

The company conducted extensive ground tests aimed at replicating the technical problems the spacecraft had encountered during its ascent, and devised plans to prevent more problems.

In the end, however, Boeing was unable to convince Nasa that it could be trusted to bring back the pair, who were originally due to stay on the ISS for about a week as they tested the Starliner, but will now remain there until February of 2025.

Wilmore and Williams, loaded with extra food and supplies to the ISS, will return to Earth aboard a SpaceX vehicle in February. What was originally supposed to be an eight-day test turned into an eight-month mission for the crew.

“Boeing believed in the model they had built that tried to predict the degradation of the thruster for the rest of the flight,” Steve Stich, program manager for Nasa’s Commercial Crew Program, told reporters this week.

But “the Nasa team, because of the uncertainty in the modeling, couldn’t get comfortable with that,” he added, calling the mood during the meetings “tense.”

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams pose in Cape Canaveral, Florida in April. Photo: Reuters

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams pose in Cape Canaveral, Florida in April. Photo: Reuters

Shortly after undocking, the Starliner performed a powerful “burn” that launched it too far away from the station to avoid any chance of collision – a maneuver that would have been unnecessary if it had a crew that could take manual control of the ship if necessary.

After that, mission teams conducted thorough checks of its thrusters in preparation for the critical “deorbit burn,” required to guide the capsule on its reentry path about 40 minutes before touchdown.

While expectations were high that the Starliner would stick the landing, as it had done in two previous uncrewed tests, Nasa will now carefully consider all aspects of the mission’s performance before deciding on next steps.

Stich emphasized that Nasa was focused on completing immediate tasks.

“When we do that, we’ll have a better understanding of when we can certify the vehicle and when we can resume flights,” he said.

Nasa awarded Boeing and SpaceX multibillion-dollar contracts a decade ago to develop spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS after the Space Shuttle was retired.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, however, beat Boeing to the punch, successfully flying dozens of astronauts since 2020.