Boeing Starliner returns to Earth without astronauts: What we know about the mission

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is set to return to Earth on Friday, months after docking with the space station and after NASA officials determined it could not fly back with a crew.

The spacecraft appeared to undock from the space station safely on Friday afternoon, ducking any problems that it had previously while docking when a thruster failed and helium leaked in its propulsion system. The spacecraft will return to New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range six hours later.

The astronauts who rode to the space station on it, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will stay behind until SpaceX brings them home in February.

The uncrewed #Starliner spacecraft is backing away from the @Space_Station after undocking from the Harmony module's forward port at 6:04pm ET (2204 UTC). pic.twitter.com/uAE38ApiJw

The two astronauts encouraged mission control before the spacecraft undocked. “We have your backs, and you’ve got this,” Williams radioed to mission controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Bring her back to Earth. Good luck.”

The moment the spacecraft undocked from the station without the astronauts was likely not planned by NASA officials who sent Williams and Wilmore to the space station in June for just over a weeklong mission. The spacecraft malfunctioned enough to keep it there for months, stranding both astronauts. It also buoyed questions about Boeing's capability as an aircraft manufacturer when it's already under immense scrutiny from the public and the government.

Williams and Wilmore, who are now scheduled to stay in space for at least five more months, are considered full-time crew and will help with experiments and maintenance. To accommodate the time in space, they are ramping up their exercise regimens to retain muscle and bone strength weakened by the weightlessness in space.

Both astronauts have lived on the space station before, and their prolonged time in space still won't come close to the nearly 371 days spent in space by astronaut Frank Rubio, the longest time spent in space by an American.

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As Starliner comes back to Earth, it will deploy a "de-orbit burn" to send it on a collision course with Earth. Then parachutes will extend above the capsule, and airbags below it to slow its descent enough to land safely in New Mexico. There, it will undergo additional analysis.

Skywatchers in parts of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico may be able to catch a glimpse of the capsule coming back to Earth, NASA said in a social media post.