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NASA to live stream Starliner’s return from Space Station

Boeing's Starliner capsule will return to Earth uncrewed, even though it was originally scheduled to carry two astronauts on board.
By Isbel Lázaro on September 3, 2024
regreso de Starliner a la Tierra

NASA announced that it will live stream Starliner’s long-awaited return to Earth. The Boeing capsule, which carried astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on its first manned flight in June 2024, will return to Earth uncrewed due to technical problems identified during its mission.

Next Friday, September 6, at 6:04 p.m. EDT, the spacecraft will undock from the International Space Stationdepending on weather conditions. It will then land at the White Sands Spaceport in New Mexico on Saturday, Sept. 7, around 12:03 a.m. EDT.

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Coverage will begin at 5:45 p.m. EDT, followed by follow up on the deorbit burn and landing, and the event will culminate with a press briefing on Sept. 7 at 1:30 a.m. EDT, where mission results will be evaluated and next steps in the commercial spaceflight program will be discussed.

Return of Starliner unmanned

The return of Starliner is marked by the identification of helium leaks and failures in the reaction control thrusters, detected while approaching the International Space Station.

Faced with these challenges and prioritizing crew safety, NASA announced Aug. 24 that the capsule would return to Earth unmanned. As a result, astronauts Wilmore and Williams will remain on the space station and will return to Earth in February 2025. will return to Earth in February 2025 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, along with two other members of the Crew-9 mission.

Starliner return. Astronauts stranded in space
Barry “Butch” E. Wilmore and Sunita L. Williams. Source: NASA

Live coverage and press conferences

For those following the mission, NASA will offer complete live coverage through its platform NASA+platform, its official applicationapp, its YouTube channels y websiteas well as on various social networks. Coverage will begin on Sept. 4 with a press conference preview from the Johnson Space Center, where details of Starliner’s undocking, re-entry and landing will be discussed. This event will feature key figures from NASA’s International Space Station Program and Commercial Crew Program, along with representatives from Boeing.

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Source and photos: NASA