Covering All Things Florida
Boeing Starliner has successfully returned to Earth. The touchdown was at 12:00 AM EDT when Starliner landed at White Sands Space Harbor.
Tonight, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is set to return to Earth. Whether or not it will be a safe return depends on who you ask. In one corner, we have Boeing, who publicly at least, stands 100% behind their crew capsule. In the other corner, NASA’, who is confident in Starliner, but not confident enough to risk the lives their astronauts.
In anticipation of what will now be the uncrewed return of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA held a pre-departure briefing on Wednesday, September 4, from its Johnson Space Center in Houston. The briefing featured Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, Dana Weigel, manager of the ISS at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and ISS Flight Director Anthony Vareha. The officials shared critical updates and a refined timeline for Starliner’s return mission to Earth, which is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 6.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will not return to Earth on Boeing Starliner and will be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
NASA managers said in a news conference today that they are close to a decision on when and how they plan to bring Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight test astronauts from the International Space Station. The mission was originally slated to run eight days, but the pair have been in orbit for sixty-three days since their June 5th launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard an Atlas V.
NASA announced today that they have postponed the launch of the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to no earlier than Tuesday, September 24, 2024. According to NASA this decision allows additional time for mission managers to finalize the return plans for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, which is currently docked at the ISS.
The International Space Station (ISS) is an island of international cooperation and scientific research. As of July 2024, the ISS has been hosting a variety of spacecraft, including the Boeing Starliner, SpaceX Dragon Endeavour, Soyuz MS-25, and the Russian Progress 87 and 88 resupply ships. The current mix of 5 vehicles and 12 astronauts ensures that the ISS is a bustling beehive of activity, supporting a diverse range of scientific experiments and international visitors. But soon, in the days and weeks to come two more spacecraft and four more astronauts will join the activities.
NASA’s Steve Stich and Boeing’s Mark Nappi provided an update on the Boeing Starliner CFT flight today in a teleconference. They stated that while no return date has been set for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return aboard the spacecraft, the agency and Boeing are relatively close to a Readiness Review that must be conducted prior to Starliner undocking from ISS and returning to Earth. According to NASA, that review may come as soon as the end of next week — or August 2, 2024.
“I think we’re starting to close in on those final pieces of the flight rationale to make sure that we can come home safely,” said Steve Stich.
In a statement released today, NASA stated that, “[Agency] and Boeing engineers are evaluating results from last week’s engine tests at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico as the team works through plans to return the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test from the International Space Station in the coming weeks.”
The popular meme in a lot of space coverage these days implies that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck aboard the International Space Station. Some say that Starliner is incapacitated and unable to return them to Earth. NASA and Boeing have steadfastly stated that is not the case, but at the same time, a test flight originally scheduled for eight days has been repeatedly extended to conduct tests on faulty thrusters on the CST-100 Starliner’s service module.
NASA and Boeing officials held a press conference today and stated that no return date has yet been set for Starliner. According to the officials, engineers are continuing to investigate system failures on the spacecraft and gather data on the Starliner thruster pods.
June 11, 2024 – Orbiting Earth as part of the nine-person crew of the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are actively engaged in testing Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. This mission marks Starliner’s first flight with astronauts and is a critical step in the data collection process for NASA certification, aiming to establish regular crewed missions to the orbital complex.
For the first time since 1968, astronauts have been launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the first-ever manned mission from a Space Force installation. On June 5, at precisely 10:52 a.m. EDT, NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 aboard the Atlas V rocket, commencing the eagerly anticipated Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission.
