Boeing's Starliner has finally landed back on Earth after a six-hour return flight.
According to BBC, Boeing’s uncrewed troubled capsule on Saturday, September 7, safely landed at the White Sands Space Harbour in New Mexico at 23:01 local time (05:01 GMT), six hours after departing from the International Space Station (ISS).
However, the two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, are left behind in space until February 2025 because, as per NASA, their return was too risky.
Moreover, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, Steve Stich, said that despite having troubles during the Starliner return to Earth, the spacecraft made a ‘bull’s eye landing’ on Earth.
Stich told the news conference early on Saturday, “I think we made the right decision not to have Butch and Suni on board. All of us feel happy about the successful landing. But then there’s a piece of us, all of us, that we wish it would have been the way we had planned it.”
Boeing's top space and defence officials, Ted Colbert and Kay Sears wrote in a note, “While this may not have been how we originally envisioned the test flight concluding, we support NASA’s decision for Starliner and are proud of how our team and spacecraft performed.”
To note, Williams and Willmore will return to Earth after eight months in February next year from their extended eight-day stay in SpaceX Crew Dragon.
