The unmanned historic space flight of the new Boeing Starliner will come to an end today. The Starliner will land near White Sands New Mexico at approximately 6:40 p.m. Pacific Time after a 5-hour journey from the ISS and a fiery re-entry.
The Starliner spacecraft took off on board an Atlas V rocket which lifted off from the U.S. Space Force base in Cape Canaveral, Florida last Thursday. All though there were glitches, including 4 of its multiple onboard thrusters not in proper operation, it has completed its main objective, a rendezvous with the ISS then a return home.
The Starliner is scheduled to autonomously undock from the ISS at or around 2:36 p.m. eastern time.
Some of the malfunctions that NASA had to contend with include multiple onboard thruster malfunction and a thermal control malfunction on its approach to the ISS. Though all malfunctions did pose an inconvenience, they were not critical, and workarounds were achieved to complete the mission.
Source #1 Reuters
Source #2 NASA
Source #3 Space.com
The Starliner spacecraft took off on board an Atlas V rocket which lifted off from the U.S. Space Force base in Cape Canaveral, Florida last Thursday. All though there were glitches, including 4 of its multiple onboard thrusters not in proper operation, it has completed its main objective, a rendezvous with the ISS then a return home.
The Starliner is scheduled to autonomously undock from the ISS at or around 2:36 p.m. eastern time.
Some of the malfunctions that NASA had to contend with include multiple onboard thruster malfunction and a thermal control malfunction on its approach to the ISS. Though all malfunctions did pose an inconvenience, they were not critical, and workarounds were achieved to complete the mission.
Source #1 Reuters
Source #2 NASA
Source #3 Space.com