BOEING’S Starliner landed safely on Earth without its crew on Friday night after Nasa deemed the problem-plagued spaceship too risky to carry the astronauts.
The spacecraft blasted off from the International Space Station (ISS) shortly after 6 pm ET, leaving behind pilot Sunita Williams and commander Butch Wilmore.
The spacecraft touched down safely in New Mexico’s White Sands Space Harbor just after midnight ET.
The live footage showed the spaceship’s descent back to Earth as three parachutes evened its journey down.
Just before the capsule landed, a strobe light on Starliner activated, which helped the team track the empty spacecraft in the dark.
Following Starliner’s touchdown, Williams commented, “A great landing of Calypso.
“Awesome to see Calypso on the ground. Nicely done.”
Williams and Wilmore were scheduled to return on the Starliner in June, however, the capsule experienced helium leaks and thruster failures.
Despite Boeing’s plea that the Starliner was safe to carry the stranded spacemen, Nasa insisted against taking the risk.
While the astronauts were only meant to spend a week in space, they are now looking to return sometime in February of next year.
Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to hitch a ride back home on Elon Musk’s Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft.
After Williams prepared the Starliner for its descent back to Earth, the astronaut called the moment “bittersweet,” as per CBS News.
“Thanks for backing us up, thanks for looking over our shoulder and making sure we’ve got everything in the right place,” Williams told flight controllers.
“We want her to have a nice, soft landing in the desert.”
While Williams and Wilmore remain at the ISS, the two have been working as full-time crew members.
They have been helping with maintenance and experiments while focusing on their health due to unexpected prolonged exposure in space.
According to Kyle Zagrodzky, the founder of OsteoStrong, staying in space for a longer time than planned will affect their body “poorly.”
“Even if they’re exercising, they’re not getting sufficient force on their bones.
“They may have, in eight months in outer space, 10 to 20 years of bone loss even with exercise.”
Astronauts normally spend around six months at the ISS, however, Wilmore and Williams journey would be around eight months by the time they depart the station.
The $1.5 billion spacecraft has seen a number of issues since its first flight test in 2019.
Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station (ISS).
However, the spacecraft had multiple software errors.
The Starliner’s journey to the ISS with Wilmore and Williams was the spacecraft’s third attempt.
The first time around, it failed due to a faulty oxygen valve on the rocket.
An error in a ground launch sequence stalled the second.
Just last week, Wilmore contacted the Johnson Space Centre after hearing an alerting sound just days before the capsule was set to depart the ISS.
“I’ve got a question about Starline,” Wilmore reported.
“There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker… I don’t know what’s making it.”
Mission control evaluated the noise, which a NASA spokesperson confirmed to be an audio configuration issue.
“The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback.”
