"#Starliner landing," Boeing posted on the X social media platform.
“Landing, #Starliner! The unmanned spacecraft landed at New Mexico's White Sands Spaceport at 12:01 a.m. ET (9:31 a.m. IST) on Saturday, September 7,” NASA added.
Starliner landed without a crew following NASA's decision on August 24 not to return Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore, of Indian origin, to the defective spacecraft due to "lack of safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight." ”.
The uncrewed return "allows NASA and Boeing to continue collecting Starliner performance data... without accepting any more risk than necessary to its crew," the US space agency said.
Williams and Willmore are now expected to return to Earth in February 2025 with the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
The Starliner flew to the ISS with Williams and Willmore on a week-long mission. But as the spacecraft approached the orbiting laboratory, it experienced a series of technical problems, including multiple thruster failures and helium leaks in the propulsion system.
While Boeing proclaimed the safety of Starliner, NASA officials disagreed.
During last week's crucial review meeting, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted that the agency's "decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing's Starliner home without crew is the result of our commitment to safety.”
Meanwhile, NASA announced that both Williams and Willmore “are safe aboard the space station.”
Along with the Expedition 71 crew, the duo supports research, maintenance and testing of the Starliner system and station data analysis. They recently completed research on fiber optic cables and growing plants aboard the ISS, NASA said.
The Expedition 71 crew consists of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Tracy C. Dyson, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Alexander Grebenkin.
“Landing, #Starliner! The unmanned spacecraft landed at New Mexico's White Sands Spaceport at 12:01 a.m. ET (9:31 a.m. IST) on Saturday, September 7,” NASA added.
Starliner landed without a crew following NASA's decision on August 24 not to return Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore, of Indian origin, to the defective spacecraft due to "lack of safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight." ”.
The uncrewed return "allows NASA and Boeing to continue collecting Starliner performance data... without accepting any more risk than necessary to its crew," the US space agency said.
Williams and Willmore are now expected to return to Earth in February 2025 with the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
The Starliner flew to the ISS with Williams and Willmore on a week-long mission. But as the spacecraft approached the orbiting laboratory, it experienced a series of technical problems, including multiple thruster failures and helium leaks in the propulsion system.
While Boeing proclaimed the safety of Starliner, NASA officials disagreed.
During last week's crucial review meeting, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson noted that the agency's "decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing's Starliner home without crew is the result of our commitment to safety.”
Meanwhile, NASA announced that both Williams and Willmore “are safe aboard the space station.”
Along with the Expedition 71 crew, the duo supports research, maintenance and testing of the Starliner system and station data analysis. They recently completed research on fiber optic cables and growing plants aboard the ISS, NASA said.
The Expedition 71 crew consists of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Tracy C. Dyson, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Alexander Grebenkin.
