Boeing’s Starliner capsule is reported to have landed in New Mexico in the wee hours of Saturday. However, the two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are still within the International Space Station’s outside confines. The capsule nosedived on Earth’s surface at 0401 GMT (9:30 am local time), which was six hours after leaving the ISS, but it was empty inside.
This afternoon, Starliner autonomously detached from the space station at 6.04 PM ET (2204 GMT) this evening and made a landing at White Sands Space Harbor New Mexico after making a fiery re-entry into Earth.
Once safely back on the ground, the apparatus was equipped with parafoil systems to assist in slowing down the landing of the vehicle.
On the moment of its re-entry to the Earth, the Starliner Capsule, the most reserved part of the spacecraft that transports a space crew on a regular mission back to the Earth, separated from the rest and expelled its service module.
Due to a number of technical difficulties related to the Starliner, NASA found it would be too unsafe to attempt to recover Williams and Wilmore. The spacecraft suffered from malfunctions in five out of 28 thrusters and minor leaks in the propulsion system throughout the mission. NASA was actually constrained in flying back the cold war hero’s temporarily due to these factors.
The Starliner’s debut July flight with Williams and Wilmore as its first crew also ended unsuccessfully. But because of technical problems that have occurred, a decision has been made to leave them aboard the ISS until the year 2025. In turn, the landing of the capsule was an important detail for Boeing, which will now work only to rectify the shortcomings underlined during the flight.
Boeing will bring the spacecraft back somewhere in order, which will make it possible to sort out the failures and proceed with the work.
