Troubled Boeing spacecraft returns to Earth without pilots on board

A Boeing spacecraft successfully returned to Earth on Saturday, without the pilots on board.

The Boeing Starliner has been plagued with technical problems since it was launched into space with astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore more than three months ago, essentially stranding the pilots in space. NASA and Boeing have been deliberating options as to how to get Williams and Wilmore home and decided to keep them in space for the time being rather than fly them home on the troubled return vessel, which successfully touched down in New Mexico on Saturday.

It would have been a risk to try and bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth on the return vessel, NASA said.

“Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft uncrewed, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible,” Ken Bowersox, an official at NASA, said in a statement on Saturday.

NASA and Boeing welcomed #Starliner back to Earth at 12:01am ET (0401 UTC) on Saturday, Sept. 7, following the uncrewed spacecraft’s landing in New Mexico—concluding its flight test to the @Space_Station: https://t.co/rOrGmEZtgP pic.twitter.com/LUqnGfuDME

— NASA (@NASA) September 7, 2024

Two executives from Boeing were expected to appear at a NASA press conference on Saturday, but neither were there, according to The Washington Post. Boeing didn’t explain why they weren’t present.

The original Boeing Starliner flight — launched in June — was meant to assess how the spacecraft could operate with crewmembers onboard, according to the Post. But several of the craft’s thrusters abruptly shut down as it approached the International Space Station (ISS), and it suffered from other problems such as helium leaks.

Both Williams and Wilmore have since been stuck on the ISS since then. The two will remain in space until February of next year, when Elon Musk’s Space X company will fly a spacecraft to the ISS to pick the two up and bring them back to Earth, according to the Post.

Boeing — which has been plagued with controversies over technical problems in several of its aircraft — seemed to disagree with NASA’s assessment that the pilots couldn’t be brought home on Saturday, apparently feeling as though it would have been a safe flight, the Post reported.

“[There was] some tension in the room,” a NASA executive said during a press briefing this week, according to the outlet. “I wouldn’t characterize it as heated. … I wouldn’t say it was a yelling, screaming kind of meeting. It was a tense technical discussion.”

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