Boeing’s Starliner performs flawless touchdown without on-board crew, program's future remains uncertain
After months of delays and uncertainty, Boeing’s Starliner capsule has returned from the International Space Station, touching down in White Sands Space
After months of delays and uncertainty, Boeing’s Starliner capsule has returned from the International Space Station, touching down in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, just after midnight on Saturday.
The capsule returned autonomously to Earth without its two crew members, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will remain aboard the station until next February. The space agency determined late last month that the pair will make their journey back to Earth onboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, after Starliner experienced technical issues early in the mission.
At a post-flight press conference on Saturday, NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich called the flight “darn near flawless.” He added that the successful mission provoked mixed feelings among staff.
“From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing, but then there’s a piece of us, all of us, that we wish it would have been the way we had planned it,” he said. “We had planned to have the mission land with Butch and Suni onboard.”
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