The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on the evening of August 29 that Boeing’s Starliner will leave the International Space Station (ISS) uncrewed no earlier than September 6, provided weather conditions are favorable and there are no technical problems.
Image source: NASA
According to the preliminary schedule, the Boeing Starliner will undock from the ISS on September 6 at 18:04 EDT (1:04 Moscow time on September 7) and 6 hours later will land by parachute in White Sands (New Mexico).
Let us recall that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft delivered NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS on June 6. This was the first manned test flight, and the astronauts were supposed to stay on the station for only 8 days. However, during the flight, Starliner encountered problems – several helium leaks occurred, and 5 of the 28 engines of the maneuvering system failed.
After several delays in the return of astronauts to Earth on the Boeing Starliner due to the study of problems with the ship’s systems and the search for their solutions, NASA decided that the risk of using the Starliner was too great and on August 24 it was announced that the mission astronauts would return to Earth on the SpaceX Dragon capsule on February next year. And the ship itself will be sent to Earth without a crew.
«The unmanned Starliner spacecraft will perform a fully autonomous return, accompanied by flight controllers at the Starliner Mission Control Center in Houston and the Boeing Mission Control Center in Florida, NASA said, adding that ground crews will remotely control the spacecraft, performing the necessary maneuvers for safe undocking, re-entry and landing using parachutes.
NASA also noted that Starliner has already returned to Earth twice autonomously during unmanned test flights in December 2019 and May 2022.