What Sunita Williams said as Starliner began its return journey to Earth. 'Bring her back...'
Starliner returns
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is back on Earth, albeit without its astronauts. It autonomously undocked from the International Space Station at 6:04 pm EDT on Friday. Its crew - Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore - are at the ISS. The spacecraft landed in the deserts of New Mexico at the White Sands Space Harbor at 12:01 am EDT (9:30 am IST) on Saturday.
"She's on her way home. Congratulations to the undocking team," NASA astronaut Sunita Williams radioed to Mission Control. She and Wilmore launched on the Starliner on June 5 for an eight-day mission. But, several technical issues, including a major problem with the thrusters, have led them to stay in space for longer. The two are now only expected to return in February 2025.
"It is time to bring Calypso home. You guys got this," Williams said further, using the name her crew chose for Starliner before the undocking. "We have your back and you've got this. Bring her back to Earth."
NASA decided to return the Starliner home without its crew due to the problems with the spacecraft, though the capsule's thrusters appeared to work fine during undocking.
Its launch from Earth was also delayed several times. It experienced helium issues before launch and during docking.
Also Read: Touchdown! Boeing Starliner 'Calypso' lands in the deserts of New Mexico
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After several meetings and tests, NASA deemed it too risky to bring Williams and Wilmore to Earth on Starliner. As per current plans, they will return in February on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Starliner fired its thrusters in a series of 12 short manoeuvres to get away from the station as planned.
NASA contracts Boeing and SpaceX
SpaceX and Boeing were awarded multibillion-dollar contracts from NASA in 2014 to construct astronaut flights. The latest step was supposed to fill in for the space shuttle for crew-carrying missions after it retired in 2011.
The commercial crewed flights were expected to begin in 2017 at that time. However, following several delays, SpaceX flew the first humans in 2020. For Starliner, the wait was extended for four extra years.
Starliner's first uncrewed test flight to the ISS took place in 2019. However, it faced some issues and things didn't go as planned. the Boeing capsule failed to reach the station due to technical glitches.
The second uncrewed test flight in 2022 went better than the last one, and it managed to dock with the ISS docking. However, this time it faced the infamous thruster issues.
