Boeing Starliner spacecraft begins return journey without astronauts

Wilmore and Williams were on hand to assist with Starliner’s departure from the space station.

“We have your back and you can do this,” Williams radioed mission controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston before the capsule undocked. “Bring it back to Earth. Good luck.”

Starliner’s return trip will be closely watched, as it marks the end of a difficult few months for Boeing and NASA. The test flight was intended to demonstrate that the spacecraft could reliably carry astronauts to and from low Earth orbit, paving the way for NASA to certify Boeing to make regular trips to the space station.

The thruster problems became the latest major setback for Boeing’s Starliner program, which before launch was more than $1.5 billion over budget and years behind schedule. An uncrewed test flight that NASA had required Boeing to perform before its spacecraft could carry astronauts also went wrong the first time around, 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 analyses will be conducted once the vehicle returns and engineers have had a chance to evaluate its performance.

To guard against possible thruster malfunctions as Starliner begins its return journey, flight controllers modified the capsule’s normal undocking process. After detaching from the space station, Starliner flew autonomously toward the station and away from it to protect it in case of a problem.

According to NASA, preliminary data showed the thrusters performed well on all 12 scheduled starts as it backed up.

In a few hours, at 11:17 p.m. ET, Starliner’s engines will initiate a 59-second “deorbit burn” to slow the spacecraft and send it crashing into Earth’s atmosphere. As it approaches its landing site in New Mexico, parachutes will be deployed to slow the capsule, and airbags will deploy beneath the spacecraft to cushion its landing.

For Boeing, the successful return of its Starliner capsule could be a bittersweet moment. If all goes well, it could mean NASA astronauts could have safely returned home aboard the spacecraft, even though the agency’s top officials voted unanimously to hand the return flight over to SpaceX to minimize the risk of further failures.

Boeing developed its Starliner spacecraft as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, an initiative launched in 2011 to support space vehicles built by private companies to fill the void left by NASA’s retired space shuttles. Rival company SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the same program and has been making routine flights to and from the space station since 2020.