Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, months after its original departure date and without the two astronauts it carried when it launched in early June.
Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a Nasa live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.
The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere around 11pm ET at orbital speeds of roughly 27,400km/h (17,025mph). About 45 minutes later, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated a set of airbags moments before touching down at the White Sands Space Harbor, an arid desert in New Mexico.
People are (rightfully) raking Starliner and Boeing for the shitshow that has been this project so far. But the positive to take from this flight, even landing without the crew, is the fact that the capsule itself performed fine. It was the service module that was being screwy. The actual “capsule” part in “capsule” seems to have had it’s issues ironed out. Just fix the shitty service module.