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Boeing’s troubled Starliner space craft undocked from the International Space Station on Friday — without its crew – and began a high-risk return to Earth.
The Starliner undocked shortly after 6pm Eastern Time on Friday evening and is scheduled to touch 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.
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.
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.”
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 are set to head to the International Space Station on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which has already made 42 visits there, later this month, 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.
“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.”
