Boeing’s Starliner Undocks From Space Station, Returns To Earth Without Butch Wilmore, Sunita Williams

Boeing’s Starliner undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday and returned to Earth without its crew of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Indian-American Sunita Williams, after a prolonged test mission marked by technical issues.

The two astronauts, who became the first two to fly Starliner in June, remained on the ISS with seven other astronauts 400 km in orbit as Starliner autonomously departed the laboratory at 6:04 pm ET for a six-hour journey toward Earth.

The NASA astronauts bid farewell to a capsule whose propulsion system problems stretched their eight-day test into an eight-month mission. Stocked with extra food and supplies, Wilmore and Williams will instead return on a SpaceX vehicle in February 2025

Problems with capsule
According to NASA, Boeing engineers have uploaded new software to Starliner that allows it to come back without a crew inside. The return trip will be a key test of Starliner’s maneuvering capability. The capsule used its maneuvering thrusters to lower its orbit and reenter Earth’s atmosphere, followed by a parachute-assisted touchdown at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

Five of Starliner’s 28 maneuvering thrusters had failed with Wilmore and Williams on board during their approach to the ISS in June, while the same propulsion system sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters. Despite docking on June 6, the failures set off a monthslong investigation by Boeing that has cost the company $125 million, bringing total cost overruns on the Starliner program since 2016.

SpaceX
Boeing’s Starliner has faced ongoing issues since its failed 2019 test trip to the ISS without a crew. A subsequent mission in 2022 largely succeeded, though some thrusters malfunctioned. These troubles highlight Boeing’s struggles in space, a field it once dominated until SpaceX began offering cheaper satellite and astronaut launches, changing NASA’s approach to working with private companies.