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NASAand Boeing will attempt to bring an empty Starliner spacecraft back to Earth tonight ( Sept. 6 ) , weeks after the craft was deemedtoo high-risk for astronautsto drive nursing home .
The uncrewed Starliner is scheduled to detach from theInternational Space Station(ISS ) at 6:04 p.m. EDT ( 2204 GMT ) today for a six - 60 minutes journey that should conclude at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico just after midnight EDT .
NASA will livestream the undocking phase commence at 5:45 p.m. EDT ( 2145 GMT ) and Starliner ’s landing place starting at 10:50 p.m. EDT ( 0250 GMT on Sept. 7 ) . you may ascertain the livestreams onNASA ’s websiteor via the video embedded below .
The landing place will conclude NASA ’s Boeing Crew Flight Test — the first effort to carry astronaut into space on the Starliner space capsule . However , the test flight will end without the crew that initially rode the fomite into range .
Starliner lifted off from Florida ’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5 , bear NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams with it . The spacecraft experienced several unexpected issues along the way , includingmultiple atomic number 2 leaksand pusher malfunction , before safely docking with the ISS on June 6 .
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Wilmore and Williams were ab initio expect to stay aboard the ISS for as few as eight days before ride Starliner back household , but assay to address the spacecraft ’s issues dragged on for months . Finally , on Aug. 24 , NASA announced in a newsworthiness conference that it would work Starliner home without its gang , will Williams and Wilmore to instead fly home on aSpaceXcapsule no earlier than February 2025 . The astronauts ' plan eight - day misstep to spacewill now last at least 240 days .
" There was just too much uncertainness in the prediction of the pusher , " Steve Stich , the programme manager for NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , said at the Aug. 24 news conference . " If we had a fashion to accurately predict what the pusher would do … I think we would have taken a different line of action . "
While questions remain about the functionality of Starliner ’s thrusters , NASA will proceed withundocking and deorbiting the spacecraft as design . After detach from the ISS , Starliner will perform a series of railway locomotive burn to pose it befittingly , before attempting to reenter Earth ’s ambiance . When approved for reentry , Starliner will perform a deorbit burn , live just about 60 seconds , to slow up the spacecraft enough for it to drip through Earth ’s air and guide it toward the landing target .
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On the direction down , Starliner will jettison its service faculty and heat buckler , allowing the space vehicle to deploy chute and inflatable landing bags . By the time it touches down in the New Mexico desert , Starliner should be move only about 4 miles per hour ( 6.4 kilometre / h ) , according to NASA .
Starliner is the first U.S.-made infinite abridgement plan to touch down on demesne rather than in the ocean . Although NASA has funded much of the mission , Boeing has spend about$1.6 billionto address various setbacks and technical issues along the style .
Boeing and NASA will continue to work together to assess Starliner ’s take after the landing , but no further crewed flights have been planned at this time .
