NASA: Starliner sets course for White Sands Space Harbor

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) — Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is scheduled to depart from the International Space Station and land at White Sands Space Harbor.

According to NASA, the Starliner will undock from the ISS on Friday, Sept. 6, and land in New Mexico just after midnight on Saturday, Sept. 7.

The spacecraft will be launching uncrewed, leaving astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore behind.

Boeing’s Starliner launched into orbit with its crew in June but experienced problems with several of its thrusters and continuous helium leaks – extending the two-man crew’s trip from days to months.

“What we really need to go do is look at the things that didn’t perform the way we expected. Like I talked about, the helium leaks. Can we go fix those leaks, test those on the ground and have confidence to move forward and fly again? The same thing with the thrusters. We know the thrusters are working well when we don’t command them in a manner that overheats them and gets the poppet to swell on the oxide,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Williams and Wilmore will remain in space, foregoing their initial mission and taking up a new one with SpaceX Crew-9 whose spacecraft, Dragon, will launch in late Sept. That team is scheduled to set course back to Earth in Feb. 2025.

“It was really hard to determine whether to be uncrewed or not. I would say the teams were very split in uncertainty relative to the thrusters. So, the NASA team chose to return Butch and Suni on Dragon,” said Stich

Manager of the NASA ISS Program, Dana Weigle, confirmed that Williams and Wilmore have been in communication with the agency and are in good health – completing tasks and their daily exercises while they wait.

“They flew as test pilots, they’re ready to execute whatever mission we put in front of them. They have confidence in the team. If we would have decided to bring them home, they’d be ready to come home. But we decided to leave them on board to join the expedition and do the work on board the station. So, they’re ready to go and execute that,” said Weigle.

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