Boeing’s Starliner to Return to Earth Without Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is set to detach from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday and return to Earth without astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. NASA announced that the spacecraft will land at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico on Saturday.
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Starliner on June 5 for its first crewed flight and arrived at the ISS on June 6. However, due to helium leaks and issues with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters, NASA decided to return Starliner without a crew for safety reasons.
The astronauts have packed the spacecraft with cargo and configured its cabin for the return journey. They closed Starliner’s hatch for the final time on Thursday afternoon.
Williams and Wilmore will remain on the ISS and are scheduled to return to Earth in February 2025 aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, along with two other crew members from NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
NASA and Boeing have scheduled Starliner’s undocking from the ISS at approximately 6:04 pm EDT on Friday, with a targeted landing at 12:03 am on Saturday, weather permitting.
SpaceX and Boeing are the two commercial vendors tasked by NASA to send American-launched astronauts to the ISS. To accommodate the Boeing Starliner astronauts on the ISS, Crew-9’s Dragon spacecraft will launch with only two astronauts instead of the planned four.
Doubts Revealed
Boeing -: Boeing is a big company that makes airplanes and spacecraft. They help people travel in the sky and to space.
Starliner -: Starliner is a special spacecraft made by Boeing. It is designed to take astronauts to and from space.
Astronauts -: Astronauts are people who are trained to travel and work in space. They do important experiments and fix things in space.
Sunita Williams -: Sunita Williams is an astronaut who has been to space many times. She is of Indian origin and works for NASA.
Butch Wilmore -: Butch Wilmore is another astronaut who works for NASA. He helps with space missions and has been to space before.
Helium leaks -: Helium leaks mean that helium gas is escaping from the spacecraft. Helium is used to help control the spacecraft.
Thruster issues -: Thruster issues mean there are problems with the small engines that help the spacecraft move and change direction.
International Space Station (ISS) -: The ISS is a big space station where astronauts live and work. It orbits the Earth and is like a home in space.
White Sands Space Harbor -: White Sands Space Harbor is a place in New Mexico, USA, where spacecraft can land safely.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft -: SpaceX’s Dragon is another spacecraft made by a company called SpaceX. It also takes astronauts to and from space.
NASA -: NASA is the space agency of the United States. They send astronauts to space and do space research.
Weather permitting -: Weather permitting means that the landing will happen only if the weather is good and safe for the spacecraft to land.
