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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will return to Earth without astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on board due to safety concerns.
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The uncrewed Starliner will depart from the International Space Station on September 6 and land in New Mexico on September 7.
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NASA will provide live coverage of the events, including a pre-departure news conference and the undocking, deorbit burn, entry, and landing phases.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth without astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on board. The spacecraft will depart from the International Space Station on September 6 and land at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico on September 7. This decision was made due to safety concerns after NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and issues with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters.
The Starliner launched on June 5 with Williams and Wilmore on board, but soon after arriving at the ISS, the issues were discovered. For safety reasons, NASA decided to return the Starliner to Earth uncrewed, leaving the astronauts behind. They will now return home in February 2025 via SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
NASA will provide extensive live coverage of the events, including a pre-departure news conference on September 4 and live coverage of the undocking, deorbit burn, entry, and landing phases. The agency will also host a post-landing news conference after the spacecraft lands.
