Watch: Aurora seen glowing from ISS as astronauts test Starliner ahead of journey back to Earth

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick recently shared an incredible time lapse video shot from the International Space Station (ISS) which showed the large space station cruising past an aurora.

Dominick said that the video was shot as Boeing Starliner astronauts were performing a crucial in-flight test ahead of their expected return to Earth on June 22.

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The timelapse video was posted over the weekend when the crew of the Starliner, astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were running some tests ahead of their journey back to Earth which has since been delayed.

“Timelapse video of aurora streaming behind Starliner taken from a Dragon window with Butch and Suni in the window of Starliner. Their flashlights light up the cabin,” Dominick wrote on X.

He added, “We were trying to get the lighting on their faces right to catch a view of them from the Dragon.”

Starliner’s home return delayed again

After multiple delays in its journey from Earth to the ISS, the spacecraft and its crew’s return has also been delayed.

Starliner was expected to undock from the ISS on June 14 and return to Earth after launching its inaugural crew of two NASA astronauts from Florida on June 5.

However, the American space agency announced that the Starliner crew will return no earlier than Saturday (Jun 22).

“The extra time allows the team to finalise departure planning and operations while the spacecraft remains cleared for crew emergency return scenarios within the flight rules,” NASA said in a blog post.

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Starliner docked at the space station on June 6, a day after its launch, as a part of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test and to test the spacecraft’s capabilities to transport humans to space.

The spacecraft is expected to land in the desert of White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Willcox Playa in Arizona, or other predetermined locations roughly six hours after undocking, pending weather conditions, NASA had said previously.

During the extended mission, the crew will “perform additional hatch operations to better understand its handling, repeat some ‘safe haven’ testing and assess piloting using the forward window,” said manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, Steve Stich, in a statement.

“We are continuing to understand the capabilities of Starliner to prepare for the long-term goal of having it perform a six-month docked mission at the space station,” said Stich.

(With inputs from agencies)