Somewhat to their embarrassment, Boeing confirmed that its Starliner spacecraft, on what was to be a Crew Flight Test (CFT) demonstation mission for NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) was recovered safely. And without its crew of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard, whose one week mission aboard the station has since been extended by several months. The Starliner undocked from the ISS at 2204 on 6 September, landing in New Mexico via its airbag and parachute system, at just six hours later at 0401 GMT on 7 September.
NASA had decided to leave the crew in place on the ISS because of concerns over overheating thrusters on the Starliner’s service module and them being automatically turned off, along with helium leaks, which occurred during the Starliner’s approach to the ISS on 6 June after its launch the day before. The danger to the crew was that if the thruster system failed completely, the crew would be marooned on a dying space capsule with oxygen running out before a natural orbital decay could happen. Under current plans, the crew will now be returned to Earth on-board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February next year.
We filmed the @Boeing Starliner undocking before its final journey to Earth from our 4K camera payload on the International Space Station. This video was captured during a private test of our livestream – we look forward to sharing future missions with the public once we start… pic.twitter.com/fNfWw0aiOa
— sen (@sen) September 7, 2024
While no thrusters on the service module were turned off this time (Boeing had made a modification to the software) two thrusters were seen to overheat. One of 12 thruster on the actual crew capsule was found to be inoperative before re-entry. A full investigation and remedial measures are planned before the next flight of the Starliner which will now take place in August next year.
Post script: The comings and goings on the ISS did not just include US spacecraft activity. Soyuz MS-26 docked with the ISS Rassvet module at about 1932 GMT on 11 September after its launch on the same day.
