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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth — but without the two astronauts, it was meant to bring back. The spacecraft landed safely around 10:01 p.m. MDT on September 6 at its designated landing site, White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

The Starliner undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday and spent approximately six hours free-flying through orbit, gradually making its way toward Earth. The return was closely monitored, marking a critical point in the spacecraft’s extended test mission.

This is not exactly the trip Boeing or NASA had envisioned. Boeing’s Starliner capsule returned, concluding its nearly three-month stay in space. But it flew back to Earth with an empty cabin, leaving behind two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will now remain on the station for another five or six months.

Before the capsule’s departure, the two astronauts who initially piloted Starliner to the ISS on June 5, bid farewell to the spacecraft. Williams, who had nicknamed the spacecraft “Calypso,” sent the capsule off with words of encouragement. “It is time to bring Calypso home,” Williams said to mission control. “You have got this. We have your backs, and you’ve got this. Bring her back to Earth.”

Wilmore and Williams will continue their work aboard the station and are expected to return in February 2025 with the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

Difficulties during reentry

By midnight on Saturday, Starliner had reached one of the riskiest stages of space missions, the reentry. This phase requires the spacecraft to carefully align itself as it plummets into Earth’s atmosphere at orbital speeds exceeding 27,400 kilometers per hour. The extreme speed, combined with atmospheric pressure and friction, heats the spacecraft’s exterior to over 1,650 degrees Celsius, a test of the vehicle’s durability.

During reentry, Boeing’s newly redesigned parachutes deployed, further slowing the capsule’s descent. As a final measure, airbags were deployed just before landing, ensuring a soft touchdown. Unlike other U.S. spacecraft, which typically splash down in the ocean, Starliner parachuted to a land-based landing site. This design feature, Boeing believes, will simplify recovery and refurbishment.

The spacecraft’s landing was completed at 12:01 a.m. ET, marking the end of its ambitious journey. Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Commercial Crew Program, praised the team’s efforts: “I want to recognize the work the Starliner teams did to ensure a successful and safe undocking, deorbit, reentry, and landing. We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program.”

Why did Starliner return to Earth without astronauts?

While the return flight was successful, many questions remain regarding Starliner’s future. During a news briefing following the landing, Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, acknowledged that the next steps for the spacecraft are still unclear.

“Now we’ve landed a capsule in the U.S. on land. The entry, in particular, has been darn near flawless, so that — I wouldn’t say it surprised me — but as I step back and think about the mission, the entry itself was just, and the deorbit burn was spot on,” Stich commented.

#Starliner landed today at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 12:01 a.m. ET on Sept. 7 (10:01 p.m. MT on Sept. 6). Teams on the ground welcomed the spacecraft and are now preparing to transport Starliner back to Florida for analysis and refurbishment.

More:… pic.twitter.com/UEPdkuXswZ

— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) September 7, 2024

Yet, the lingering technical concerns that led to Wilmore and Williams being left behind are still under investigation. During the initial outbound flight, helium leaks in the Starliner’s thruster pressurization system were identified, as well as issues with several of the spacecraft’s reaction control system (RCS) thrusters.

The RCS thrusters are essential for controlling the vehicle’s orientation in space, and the failure of five of the 28 thrusters en route to the ISS raised serious concerns. While Boeing was able to restore four thrusters, one remained inoperative for the entirety of the mission.

Due to these complications, NASA decided not to risk the crew’s safety by bringing them back on Starliner. Instead, the two astronauts will return aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule in 2025. NASA’s ultimate decision to leave Wilmore and Williams aboard the ISS for an extended mission, which was initially planned to last just eight days, reflects the agency’s cautious approach to human spaceflight safety.

“If we’d had a model that would have predicted what we saw tonight perfectly, yeah, it looks like an easy decision to go say we could have had a crewed flight — but we didn’t have that,” Stich explained during the briefing.

Although the successful return of the capsule marks a positive step, both Boeing and NASA must now confront the challenge of addressing the spacecraft’s issues before it is deemed ready for regular crewed missions. Stich reflected on the mission with a mix of satisfaction and regret: “From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing,” he said. “But then there’s a piece of us, all of us, that we wish it would have been the way we had planned it. We had planned to have the mission land with Butch and Suni on board.”

NASA has partnered with private companies like Boeing and SpaceX to reduce costs and increase the availability of crewed missions to the ISS. While SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has had multiple successful missions, Boeing’s Starliner has faced delays and technical hurdles.