After separating from the orbiting laboratory, the empty craft went into autopilot mode.
The capsule, which experienced technical problems after launching with NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, was deemed too risky to take the astronauts home.
Instead, they will return on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, but they will have to wait until February, extending their eight-day stay on the ISS to eight months.
It took six hours
The return flight took six hours. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, parachutes were used to slow its descent into White Sands Spaceport in New Mexico early this morning.
NASA previously reported that Butch and Suni were in good spirits and in regular contact with their families.
This was the first test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft with astronauts on board, but it ran into problems shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5.
The capsule suffered a helium leak that forced fuel into the propulsion system, and many of its thrusters failed to function properly.
Engineers at Boeing and NASA spent months trying to figure out these technical issues, but in late August the US space agency decided Starliner was not safe enough to bring astronauts home.
Return via competitor company
The plan to use rival company SpaceX to return the two astronauts came with a significant delay. The extra time was to allow SpaceX to launch its next vehicle, scheduled to lift off at the end of September.
The vehicle was supposed to carry four astronauts, but will instead travel with two, leaving room for Butch and Suni to join the vehicle for its return to Earth at the end of its planned stay next February.
ISS administrator Dana Weigel said the astronauts were adjusting well to their extended mission. Both had previously completed two long-term stays in space.
The duo reportedly followed the necessary exercise programs to stay healthy in the weightless environment, and that they had all the equipment they needed for their unplanned eight-month stay.
Weigel explained that he delivered “special crew preference items” requested by the couple during a resupply mission in July.
Continuing cooperation with Boeing
The US space agency has expressed its commitment to Boeing’s spacecraft. Having two American companies to take astronauts into space has been a key goal for NASA for some time.
When the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, the U.S. relied solely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to carry its crew and cargo for a decade, a situation NASA acknowledged was far from ideal.
So in 2014, Boeing and SpaceX signed a contract to provide commercial space flights for NASA astronauts. Boeing received $4.2 billion and SpaceX $2.6 billion.
SpaceX has already sent nine crewed flights into space for NASA, as well as some commercial missions, but this was Boeing’s first attempt at a crewed mission.
Boeing’s Starliner has already been delayed by several years due to setbacks in the spacecraft’s development, and two previous uncrewed flights in 2019 and 2022 also suffered from technical issues.
But NASA administrator Bill Nelson said he was 100 percent confident the Starliner would fly with a crew again.
