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NASAand Boeing will attempt to bring an empty Starliner spacecraft back to Earth tonight ( Sept. 6 ) , hebdomad after the craftiness was deemedtoo hazardous for astronautsto ride household .
The uncrewed Starliner is scheduled to come off from theInternational Space Station(ISS ) at 6:04 p.m. EDT ( 2204 GMT ) today for a six - hour journey that should reason out at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico just after midnight EDT .
NASA will livestream the undocking phase angle beginning at 5:45 p.m. EDT ( 2145 GMT ) and Starliner ’s landing starting at 10:50 p.m. EDT ( 0250 GMT on Sept. 7 ) . you’re able to watch the livestreams onNASA ’s websiteor via the video implant below .
The landing place will reason out NASA ’s Boeing Crew Flight Test — the first attempt to persuade astronauts into infinite on the Starliner abridgement . However , the test flight will terminate without the crew that initially rode the vehicle into orbit .
Starliner lifted off from Florida ’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5 , carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams with it . The spacecraft experienced several unexpected issues along the way , includingmultiple helium leaksand thruster malfunctions , before safely docking with the ISS on June 6 .
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Wilmore and Williams were initially expected to quell aboard the ISS for as few as eight days before ride Starliner back home , but undertake to decide the spacecraft ’s issues tangle on for month . Finally , on Aug. 24 , NASA announced in a news league that it would bring Starliner home without its work party , leave Williams and Wilmore to instead fly home on aSpaceXcapsule no earlier than February 2025 . The astronauts ' planned eight - day trip to spacewill now last at least 240 day .
" There was just too much uncertainness in the prediction of the thrusters , " Steve Stich , the program manager for NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , said at the Aug. 24 news conference . " If we had a way to accurately prognosticate what the thruster would do … I think we would have take a different course of action . "
While question continue about the functionality of Starliner ’s thruster , NASA will proceed withundocking and deorbiting the spacecraft as planned . After detaching from the ISS , Starliner will perform a series of engine burns to set it appropriately , before attempting to reenter Earth ’s ambiance . When approved for reentry , Starliner will do a deorbit suntan , lasting roughly 60 second , to decelerate the spacecraft enough for it to drop through Earth ’s atmosphere and guide it toward the landing place target .
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On the way down , Starliner will jettison its overhaul mental faculty and heat shields , allowing the spacecraft to deploy parachute and inflatable landing bags . By the time it refer down in the New Mexico desert , Starliner should be moving only about 4 mph ( 6.4 km / h ) , according to NASA .
Starliner is the first U.S.-made place capsule designed to reach down on land rather than in the ocean . Although NASA has fund much of the missionary work , Boeing has spent about$1.6 billionto computer address various setbacks and expert issue along the agency .
Boeing and NASA will continue to solve together to assess Starliner ’s issues after the landing place , but no further crewed flights have been plan at this prison term .
