Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule touches down back on Earth without its crew

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will remain at the International Space Station until February, when they will fly home on a SpaceX flight

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has returned to Earth empty after technical issues made it too risky to carry astronauts.

The Starliner spacecraft entered the Earth’s atmosphere after undocking from the International Space Station on Friday — without its crew. The Starliner undocked shortly after 6pm Eastern Time on Friday evening and touched down six hours later in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico.

The craft returns without Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The NASA astronauts had traveled on the space capsule in what was supposed to be an eight-day test flight in June, but due to problems plaguing the Starliner, the pair will stay at the Space Station until February, when they will hitch a ride back to Earth with SpaceX.

Watch the Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth live.

At 9.44pm, NASA announced that Starliner’s entry cover had been closed and secured for entry. The spacecraft landed at just after midnight on 7 September.

NASA decided this month that it would be too risky to return the astronauts to Earth on the capsule because of persistent problems before, during and after its June launch, namely thruster trouble and helium leaks.

To add apparent insult to injury, Wilmore reported last weekend that the spacecraft was making “strange” pulsing sounds.

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft pulls away from the International Space Station for its unmanned return to the surface of Earth on September 6, 2024 (NASA/AFP via Getty Images)

But NASA responded with an explanation, suggesting that there were no additional problems with the beleaguered capsule.

“The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner. The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback,” the space agency said.

Some have worried about the thrusters not igniting when it leaves the Space Station but NASA says there is no need for concern.

“The first thing that happens when with the hooks [detach] on the NASA docking system is there’s a couple of springs that kind of push the vehicle away,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s human space flight program, said during a Wednesday news conference. “So it will immediately have clearance.”

He added the departure poses no risk to the ISS, where the astronauts are. “So we don’t really expect any issues with the thrusters near station...And then we get away very quickly and once we’re on that trajectory, we’re safe from the space station.”

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose on June 13, 2024 inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft (Credit: Nasa)

When the decision was made for SpaceX to shuttle the astronauts home, Stich admitted there was “some tension in the room.”

“Boeing believed in the model that they had created to predict thruster degradation for the rest of the flight,” Stich added. “The NASA team looked at the model and saw some limitation. It really had to do with, do we have confidence in the thrusters, and how much we could predict their degradation from undock through the deorbit burn?”

Two astronauts — Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov — are set to head to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which has already made 42 visits there, no earlier than September 24, leaving two seats available for Williams and Wilmore for their journey home.

The two astronauts stranded at the Space Station called mission control just before the capsule undocked.

In this screen grab from a NASA livestream, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft can be seen departs from the International Space Station (NASA/AFP via Getty Images)

“It’s time to bring Calypso home. You got this. We have your back,” Williams said.

A flight controller then thanked the pair for their “endless support over the years....We remember every setback and every revelation for you.”

Wilmore also told mission control: “Many years of great enjoyment sitting together, playing together and being involved with each other’s lives. It’s been special. Bring it home.”