Boeing's Starliner capsule undocked from the ISS at 6:04 p.m. Eastern Time on Sept. 6 and Landed safely and smoothly On Sept. 7 at 12:01 a.m. at White Sands Spaceport in New Mexico, the Calypso capsule had no crew on board, despite having flown to the ISS with astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. In late August, NASA decided the astronauts would return home in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February for safety reasons. Wilmore and Williams simply provided support for the capsule’s return trip home and watched coverage of its reentry and landing. “You can do it. We’ve got your back, and you can do it. Bring it back to Earth,” Williams said. He told ground control.
The astronauts flew on the Starliner as part of its first crewed flight meant to prove the spacecraft is ready to regularly transport humans to the ISS alongside SpaceX's Crew Dragon. They were only supposed to stay in the orbiting lab for eight days, but the spacecraft's service module began leaking helium on its way there. Some of the module's thrusters had also failed. The Starliner uses helium to pressurize its fuel tanks and to thruster propeller The thrusters that maneuver the spacecraft. Over the past three months, engineers on the ground have been running tests on Starliner with the help of astronauts, but NASA ultimately decided to send Starliner home uncrewed because it had no confidence in the performance of the thrusters.
During the press conference following the Starliner landing, Boeing was noticeably absent, with three NASA officials speaking about the landing instead. When asked why Boeing wasn’t there and whether the relationship between the agency and the company was affected by the Starliner issues, the representatives said Boeing deferred to NASA to represent the mission. They said all three spoke with Boeing managers and that the company is committed to working with the agency. Steve Stich, the Commercial Crew Program manager at NASA Kennedy, also added that while everyone was happy with the landing, a part of them still wishes it had gone as planned, with the astronauts returning home aboard Calypso.
Stitch, Joel Montalbano (NASA deputy associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate), and Dana Weigel (NASA director for the International Space Station) all praised Starliner for its successful docking and “landing on target.” They said they learned a lot from the mission, which apparently achieved 85 to 90 percent of its objectives, and stressed that it’s important to remember that things don’t always go as planned when it comes to test flights.
It will take about two weeks for the Calypso capsule to return to NASA and about a week after that to get all the data back from the capsule. NASA and Boeing plan to analyze the data the spacecraft collected on all of its systems from its time in orbit through its undocking, reentry and landing. They will then use that information to design improvements for the spacecraft.
Unfortunately, they were unable to inspect the thrusters that failed during the flight to the ISS, as well as the “doghouses” containing the spacecraft’s propulsion system where helium had leaked. They had always planned to discard the service module containing those items upon reentry, and it is now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. NASA previously said the problems arose because the propulsion equipment got hotter than expected during the flight, causing seals on the containers to loosen and leak helium. In the case of the thrusters, the heat apparently caused the seals to bulge and restrict propellant flow, leading to disruptions.
Stitch said he wouldn’t say those issues are insurmountable — they just need some time to work out. They also can’t say right now whether the next Starliner flight will have a crew on board. For now, the agency is preparing for other missions. By the end of September, the SpaceX Crew-8 mission vehicle is scheduled to undock and return to Earth, while the SpaceX Crew-9 mission is expected to launch. Crew-9 will fly with two astronauts instead of four to make room for Wilmore and Williams for their return flight in February.
