Sept. 6 (UPI) — The uncrewed Boeing Starliner successfully landed in New Mexico late Friday after departing six hours earlier from the International Space Station.
The capsule left behind two astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — who must now remain in the station until February for a return home on a SpaceX capsule. NASA decided problems with Starliner’s thrusters and leaking helium made it too risky of a return with humans.
Starliner landed at White Sands Space Harbor at 10:01 p.m. MDT. Ground crews welcomed the capsule with plans to return it to Florida where it launched on June 6.
The autonomous undocking from the ISS was carried out as scheduled at 4:04 p.m. MDT after the craft was unhooked from the the forward module of the station. It slowly backed away while executing a series of 12 “breakout burns” over a 5-minute span, driving it farther away from the station while flying …