NASA Says Boeing Starliner Could Return Uncrewed From ISS Next Friday

NASA has announced that the Boeing Starliner is cleared to make an uncrewed return to Earth next week. Mission teams have penciled in a return no earlier than Friday, September 6th. Starliner return scheduled for next Friday NASA and Boeing completed a Delta-Flight Test Readiness Review on Thursday after last week's revelation to fly home two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, on a Crew Dragon rather than risking a manned Starliner return.

Thursday's review concluded with a decision to proceed with the uncrewed return of Starliner, no earlier than 18:04 EDT next Friday. According to NASA, Starliner will take approximately six hours to arrive at its landing zone at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Aided by the use of parachutes and airbags, the spacecraft is scheduled to make a midnight landing on Saturday, September 7th.

How the spacecraft performs during this mission - and whether any existing or new problems emerge - could ultimately determine the fate of Boeing's Starliner program, which has already cost it billions of dollars in losses. Autonomous capability restored Starliner is capable of autonomously docking and undocking with the International Space Station (ISS) having proven this during a test flight in 2022. However, this feature was removed from Starliner's flight software for its current mission, Boeing Flight Crew Test, as the craft was intended to return to Earth with its crew.

Last month, officials revealed that NASA and Boeing were working .