Boeing’s problematic space capsule lands on Earth without astronauts

Six hours after leaving the International Space Station, Starliner parachuted over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and descended through the desert darkness on autopilot.

It was an uneventful conclusion to a drama that began in June with the Boeing crew’s long-delayed debut and quickly escalated into a drawn-out cliffhanger about a mission plagued by engine failures and helium leaks.

For months, the return of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was uncertain because engineers did not understand the capsule’s problems.

After extensive testing, Boeing insisted that the Starliner could bring the two home safely, but NASA disagreed and booked a flight with SpaceX instead.

Their SpaceX Starship won’t launch until later this month, meaning they’ll be there until February — more than eight months after lifting off on what should have been a short trip.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams were due to fly back to Earth on the Starliner in mid-June, a week after launch. But their flight to the space station was marred by a series of engine problems and helium loss, and NASA ultimately decided it was too risky to bring them back on the Starliner.

After the latest software updates, the fully automated capsule left the station with empty seats, blue spacesuits and also some old station equipment.

“She’s on her way home,” Ms. Williams radioed as the white and blue-decorated capsule undocked from the space station 420 kilometers above China and disappeared into the black void.

“A good landing, really impressive,” said Boeing mission control.

Cameras on the space station and two NASA aircraft captured the capsule as a white streak as it landed, sparking great cheers.

Although there were some problems during re-entry, including further problems with the engines, Starliner managed a “precise landing,” said Steve Stich, program manager for commercial crews at NASA.

Even with a safe return, “I think we made the right decision not to have Butch and Suni on board,” Stich said at a press conference early Saturday.

“We are all happy about the successful landing. But then there is a part of us, of all of us, that wishes it had gone the way we had planned.”

Boeing did not attend the press conference in Houston, but two of the company’s top space and defense executives, Ted Colbert and Kay Sears, told employees in a statement that they supported NASA’s decision.

“Although we did not originally envision the outcome of the test flight, we support NASA’s decision to select Starliner and are proud of the performance of our team and our spacecraft,” the executives wrote.

The Starliner crew demo capped a journey full of delays and setbacks. After the space shuttles were retired more than a decade ago, NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX to provide orbital taxi service. Boeing encountered so many problems during its first uncrewed test flight in 2019 that the flight had to be repeated, uncovering even more defects and costing more than a billion dollars in repairs.

SpaceX’s Crew Ferry flight later this month will be NASA’s 10th since 2020. The Dragon capsule will launch on the six-month expedition with just two astronauts, as two seats are reserved for Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams on the return flight.

As experienced astronauts and retired Navy captains, Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams anticipated obstacles on the test flight. They have been busy in space, helping with repairs and experiments. The two are now full-time members of the station crew, along with the seven others on board.

Even before the duo launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on June 5, the Starliner’s propulsion system leaked helium. The leak was small and considered isolated, but four more occurred after launch.

Then five engines failed. Although four of them were recovered, NASA feared that further malfunctions could hinder the capsule’s descent from orbit.

Boeing conducted numerous engine tests in space and on Earth over the summer and was confident that its spacecraft could bring the astronauts back safely. However, NASA was not satisfied with the engine situation and chose SpaceX.

After undocking, flight controllers conducted further test firings of the capsule’s engines; one failed to fire. Engineers suspect that the more often the engines are fired, the hotter they get, causing the protective seals to swell and impede the flow of fuel. They will not be able to examine any parts; the section holding the engines was jettisoned shortly before reentry.

Starliner will be transported back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in a few weeks where analyses will be conducted.

NASA officials stressed that the space agency remains committed to contracting two competing U.S. companies to transport astronauts. The goal is for SpaceX and Boeing to take turns transporting astronauts — one per year for each company — until the space station is abandoned in 2030, just before its fiery reentry. That doesn’t leave Boeing much time to catch up, but the company wants to move forward with Starliner, according to NASA.

Mr Stich said that after the landing, it was still too early to know when the next Starliner flight with astronauts could take place.

“It will take some time before we determine the way forward,” he said.