NASA To Livestream Boeing Starliner’s Solo Return To Earth, Get The Popcorn Ready
Early in the mission, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams gave a guided zero gravity tour of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. At that time, the two astronauts only intended to stay onboard the ISS for about a week. However, about two months later NASA made the painstaking decision to return the Boeing Starliner uncrewed because of issues with the spacecraft involving three helium leaks, and reaction control thrusters.
The announcement was made during a press conference last week, with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson making it clear that Boeing had worked “very hard” to provide the space agency the necessary data needed to make the correct decision, even if it was an embarrassment to some Boeing employees. Now, nearly two weeks since the decision was made, Starliner will make its return back to Earth without Williams and Wilmore onboard. The two astronauts will instead catch a ride back to Earth in February aboard a SpaceX space capsule.
Following NASA’s announcement to return Starliner uncrewed, Boeing posted a statement on X that reads, “We continue to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”
During a pre-departure news conference on Wednesday, NASA’s Steve Stich, program manager for the commercial crew program, remarked about the decision to return Starliner uncrewed, “I would say, anytime […] where there’s this kind of decision, there is some tension in the room. Boeing believed in the model that they had created to predict thruster degradation for the rest of the flight.” He continued, “The NASA team looked at the model and saw some limitation. It had to do with, do we have the confidence in the thrusters, and how much we could predict their degradation from undock through the deorbit burn?”
Boeing has a lot riding on the success of Starliner returning to Earth undamaged, as one Boeing employee noted after NASA made its decision. The unnamed employee remarked, “We have had so many embarrassments lately, we’re under the microscope. This just made it, like, 100 times worse.”
Once Starliner begins its deorbit burn, which lasts approximately 60 seconds, while slowing the spacecraft down enough to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and committing the spacecraft to its targeted site. Immediately following the deorbit burn, Starliner will reposition for service module disposal, which will burn up over the Pacific Ocean.
During re-entry, the capsule will experience plasma buildup, reaching temperatures up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and may disrupt communications with the spacecraft for around 4 minutes. Once the spacecraft re-enters Earth's atmosphere, the forward heatshield, located on the top of the spacecraft, is jettisoned at 30,000-feet, exposing two drogue and three main parachutes for deployment. The parachutes will continue to slow Starliner down as the base heatshield is jettisoned at 3,000-feet, allowing six landing bags to inflate. At touchdown, the spacecraft will be traveling at an estimated speed of 4mph.
Starliner is the first American capsule designed to touch down on land, supporting expedited astronaut and cargo recovery on future missions and to aid the company in spacecraft refurbishment. NASA and Boeing will use one of several potential landing locations in the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; Wilcox, Arizona; and Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. NASA remarked Edwards Air Force Base is also available as a contingency landing site.
Coverage of Starliner's return trip to Earth is scheduled to begin at 5:45pm ET, with the undocking process beginning at approximately 6:04pm. Coverage will resume around 10:50pm ET as the Starliner spacecraft begins its deorbit burn, entry, and landing (targeted landing at approximately 12:03am). The event can be viewed on NASA+, the NASA app, NASA’s YouTube channel (viewable above), and the agency’s website.
