After more than 3 months, the long odyssey of the Starliner capsule Boeing’s mission is finally over. The capsule, nicknamed Calypso, was released from the International Space Station (ISS) at midnight (Italian time) on Saturday 7 September and re-entered the atmosphere a few hours later landing on Earth without any problems in New Mexico (USA) at 6 in the morningItalian time.
The capsule’s return did however take place without crew on boardsince NASA had decided, for safety reasons, not to let the astronauts return Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams with the Starliner due to navigation system failures that occurred during docking with the ISS.
The efforts were of no avail Boeing engineers object who tried to reassure NASA about the goodness and reliability of their capsule. Mindful of the Columbia shuttle disaster, NASA preferred don’t risk the lives of astronautscausing a significant lengthening of their mission, which went from the initial 10 days to more than 8 months, due to the lack of an alternative method of returning to Earth.
How did the Starliner return go?
There Starliner began its re-entry maneuver by undocking from the ISS at 00:04 Italian time Of Saturday 7th September. The capsule, once it had moved far enough away from the ISS, began to 05:17 a series of engine ignitions remotely controlled to enter a specific orbital corridor that would allow it to safely return to Earth. A few minutes after the scheduled ignitions, the separation of the return form of the capsule.
Atmospheric reentry began when the capsule was over the Pacific Ocean at approximately 120 km from the Earth’s surface. The capsule was initially travelling at a speed of approximately 28,000 km/hspeed which has progressively decreased due to thefriction with the Earth’s atmospherewhich caused the temperature outside the capsule to reach 1600 °C.
About 9 km after atmospheric reentry, the separation between the heat shield and the rest of the reentry module, which made it possible to open the braking parachutes to further slow the free fall. After 45 seconds, these also separated, thus leaving room for the opening of the three main parachutes which slowed the capsule to a tens of km/h.
The landing took place at 06:01 Italian time not far from the White Sands base in New Mexico (USA). Despite the concerns, everything went smoothly reigniting the discussion on the need to return the capsule without a crew.
What the future holds for the Starliner capsule
Both NASA and Boeing were hoping for a different ending for this first crewed test flight. The Starliner capsule was actually supposed to open a new (commercial) route to spaceoffering NASA a alternative to Space X capsules to transport astronauts safely to the ISS and for longer-duration missions.
Unfortunately, however, the plans will have to be revised. It has already been announced that the capsule’s first operational mission, scheduled for February 2025, will be delayed by a few monthsat least until August 2025. It is also unclear at this time whether Boeing will certify Starliner as safe by that date or what further tests they will be requested by NASA so that the capsule is also certified by them.
Boeing’s plans are still unclear because the team has been mostly focused on making this reentry a success, in order to prove to NASA that their decision not to reentry the astronauts on the Starliner was wrong. Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore witnessed the capsule’s return from the ISS, congratulating the Boeing team via social media X. The duo will still have to wait until February 2025 to be able to return to Earth aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company that Boeing has positioned itself as a competitor with its Starliner capsule.
