Boeing's Starliner Spaceship Set to Return Without Crew
Boeing's uncrewed Starliner spacecraft is preparing to depart from the International Space Station (ISS) and autonomously land back on Earth on Friday. This comes as the initial crewed test mission of astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore remains extended aboard the ISS.
The Starliner had launched to the ISS in early June to demonstrate Boeing's capabilities in ferrying crews to and from the orbital outpost. However, issues with the capsule's attitude control system surfaced, prompting NASA and Boeing to opt for an early return without a crew for safety reasons.
Skywatchers will get a chance to follow the spacecraft's journey back live. Starliner is scheduled to undock from the ISS at around 6:04 a.m. EDT on Friday. NASA will provide a livestream of the departure on their YouTube channel.
Following undocking, Starliner will perform a deorbit burn in the late evening and touch down under parachutes at Mexico's White Sands facility at around 12:03 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Another live feed will capture these landing events for viewers.
Williams and Wilmore, meanwhile, will now come back next February onboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule as part of the company's Crew-9 mission. Their extended stay will allow engineers to evaluate Starliner further and hopefully fly the vehicle's inaugural crewed mission soon.
