Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed on Wednesday (25) in the New Mexico desert, in the United States, after an unmanned mission considered crucial to restore the aerospace giant’s reputation after several failures.
After six days of mission, the capsule landed at the White Sands base at 16:49 local time (19:49 GMT). Its descent was stopped by large parachutes, and then its airbags were inflated.
“Just a beautiful landing at White Sands this afternoon,” said an announcer on a NASA live stream, as a recovery team quickly rushed to the scene.
The Orbital Test Flight 2 (OFT-2) mission was the last hurdle to be overcome by Starline before taking humans on another test mission, which could take place later this year.
The Starliner docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, a day after taking off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Over the weekend, astronauts aboard the research platform opened the hatch and “greeted” the capsule’s passengers: Rosie the Rocketeer, a sensor-equipped dummy, and a stuffed animal named Jebediah Kerman, a video game character and the ship’s zero gravity indicator.
The spacecraft brought back more than 270 kg of cargo, including reusable tanks that provide breathing air for the station’s crew members, who will be refitted and taken back on a future flight.
While flying over the Pacific Ocean, Starliner initiated a deorbiting maneuver and ejected its expendable service module, leaving the remaining crew module to withstand temperatures of around 1,650°C during atmospheric reentry.
After losing most of his speed, he launched a series of parachutes that culminated in his three gigantic main parachutes, red, white and blue. At 3,000 feet, it detached from its base heat shield, revealing airbags that facilitated a smooth landing.
However, the mission was not without setbacks, which NASA and Boeing teams plan to scrutinize closely to see if they could cause problems in the future.
Still, the glitches were minor compared to the problems Starliner had during its first test launch in 2019, when a software bug caused it to burn too much fuel to reach its destination, and another nearly destroyed the vehicle during the reentry.
NASA is seeking to certify Starliner as a second “taxi” service for astronauts to the ISS, a role already held by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company since the 2020 success of its test mission with the Dragon capsule.
