Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft set to return to Earth on Saturday
While Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain in space until February 2025, their craft is coming home.
Don’t miss Nasa’s live coverage of the upcoming activities for the departure of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station.
The uncrewed spacecraft will depart from the orbiting laboratory for a landing at White Sands Space Harbour in New Mexico. It is scheduled to autonomously undock at around 23:45 on Friday, weather conditions permitting, to begin the journey home.
Nasa and Boeing are aiming for a landing at 06:03 on Saturday.
NASA and Boeing teams are “go” to proceed with undocking the uncrewed #Starliner from the @Space_Station on Friday, Sept. 6.
Undocking coverage is set to begin at 5:45pm ET (2145 UTC), with Starliner touching down at 12:03am (0403 UTC) on Sept. 7. More: https://t.co/rvPuZE14wx pic.twitter.com/ehFVBhlOdw
— NASA (@NASA) August 30, 2024
The live coverage of the return and related activities will stream on NASA+, the Nasa app, and the agency’s website.
According to Nasa, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station on June 6.
“As Starliner approached the orbiting laboratory, Nasa and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters. For the safety of the astronauts, Nasa announced on August 24 that Starliner will return to Earth from the station without a crew.
“Wilmore and Williams will remain aboard the station and return home in February 2025 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.”
Our @SpaceX #Crew9 mission will launch two crew members to the @Space_Station no earlier than Sept. 24, following our decision to return #Starliner uncrewed. Learn more about @AstroHague, Aleksandr Gorbunov, and the latest Crew-9 updates: https://t.co/6bsrRppNYJ pic.twitter.com/A7x2Krd9Mf
— NASA (@NASA) August 30, 2024
LIVE: @NASA_Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams speak with @SenBillNelson and agency leaders about their ongoing #Starliner mission on a call from the @Space_Station. https://t.co/1T7byBbzOL
— NASA (@NASA) June 10, 2024
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