Boeing Starliner hatch closed, preparations for unmanned return to Earth Friday

With the troubled mission finally over, Boeing’s Starliner capsule was readied for re-entry and its hatch was closed Thursday, clearing the way for undocking and an unmanned return to Earth Friday night in the final chapter of a disappointing test flight.

Ninety-two days later launch Aboard the Starliner — a mission originally scheduled to last just over a week — Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams kept their thoughts to themselves as the hatch closed at 1:29 p.m. EDT.

Leaving Wilmore and Williams behind, the Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station’s forward Harmony module at 6 p.m. ET on Friday. Five hours and 15 minutes later, the spacecraft’s powerful braking rockets are programmed to fire for about 59 seconds to drop the ship from orbit.

After a vigorous southwest-to-northeast dive over the Baja Peninsula, the Gulf of California and northern Mexico, the Starliner is expected to descend using three parachutes and land at a speed of 4 mph just after midnight in White Sands, New Mexico, where Boeing and NASA recovery teams will be standing by.

Astronauts’ return postponed until February

Wilmore and Williams will back to earth next februarywho are hitching a ride home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship launching on September 24. When they finally return next year, they will have spent 262 days in space.

On Wednesday, as she worked inside the Starliner to help arrange return items to ensure proper balance and center of gravity, Williams said, “It’s a double whammy of packing up the Starliner and getting our simulators up on our seats. But you know, we want to do our best to make sure she’s in good shape.”

She assured flight controllers: “We’re going to clean everything up tomorrow (Thursday), make sure everything is in order and do a few final things to seal it before the hatch closes. Thank you for supporting us, thank you for looking over our shoulder and making sure everything is in place. We want her to have a soft landing in the desert.”

When Williams and Wilmore ran away aboard Starliner on June 5, they expected to be in control when the ship returned to Earth to complete its first crewed test flight. Boeing was equally confident that the ship would be certified to carry long-duration crews to and from the space station beginning in early 2025.

But during the rendezvous with the space station the day after launch, Starliner experienced multiple helium leaks in its propulsion pressure control system and five maneuvering jets were “shut down” by the flight computer because they were experiencing reduced thrust.

Boeing and NASA then conducted an extensive series of tests and analyses to determine what was causing the problems and whether they might get worse or otherwise threaten safe reentry and proper landing.

Based on the test data, Boeing engineers concluded that the problems were understood, would not get worse, and that the Starliner could safely return Wilmore and Williams to Earth. They argued that the departure and return maneuvers would be far less stressful than what the boosters experienced during rendezvous.

But those jets are crucial. They must fire when needed to safely remove the Starliner from the space station, then keep it oriented and stable during the de-orbit rocket firing that will drop the ship from orbit.

Ultimately, NASA managers did not accept Boeing’s flight rationale and decided there remained too much uncertainty to risk taking Wilmore and Williams aboard the Starliner.

“We look at the data and the uncertainty in it differently than Boeing does,” said Jim Free, NASA’s deputy administrator.

Other, more powerful thrusters are used for the actual braking, but the smaller reaction control jets are needed to ensure the ship remains on course to reach the White Sands landing site.

“Space is hard. The margins are thin. The space environment is not forgiving,” said Norm Knight, director of flight operations at Johnson Space Center. “And we have to be right.”