Boeing’s Starliner capsule is able to come residence in the end.
The 2 NASA astronauts who rode Starliner to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, “have completed packing Starliner with cargo and configuring its cabin for return,” NASA officers introduced in an replace on Thursday (Sept. 5).
“The duo closed Starliner’s hatch for the ultimate time Thursday afternoon, readying the spacecraft for its uncrewed departure,” they added. You may watch the Starliner undocking and touchdown dwell, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT).
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As that replace famous, Williams and Wilmore will not be coming down with Starliner; the capsule will land uncrewed simply after midnight Saturday (Sept. 7) in New Mexico’s White Sands Area Harbor, if all goes in accordance with plan.
You may watch the undocking and the touchdown dwell right here at Area.com, courtesy of NASA.
The landing will wrap up Starliner’s first-ever astronaut mission, Crew Flight Take a look at (CFT), which launched on June 5 and arrived on the ISS a day later. Starliner suffered a number of points earlier than docking, nonetheless — notably, helium leaks and the failure of 5 of its 28 response management system (RCS) thrusters.
CFT was purported to final simply 10 days or so, however NASA stored extending the check mission to review the helium leaks and thruster subject in additional element. Finally, the company determined that flying Williams and Wilmore residence on Starliner posed an unacceptable danger, so the duo will keep in orbit for some time longer — till February 2025, once they’ll come residence on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
That Crew Dragon hasn’t left the bottom but; it is scheduled to raise off on Sept. 24, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS. (Crew Dragon missions often carry 4 astronauts, however this one needed to make room for Williams and Wilmore on the downward leg.)
Saturday morning’s landing would be the third for Starliner so far. The primary got here in Could 2019, after an unsuccessful uncrewed flight to the ISS; the capsule suffered a number of glitches and failed to satisfy up with the orbiting lab as deliberate. The second touchdown, in Could 2022, wrapped up a profitable uncrewed check mission to the ISS.
