Boeing Starliner To Undock From ISS And Return To Earth Without Crew As Early As Sept. 6

Boeing Co.’s BA Starliner spacecraft will commence its journey back to Earth after nearly three months in space no earlier than Sept. 6, NASA said on Thursday.

What Happened: The space agency said that it conducted a review with Boeing on Thursday and determined to proceed with undocking the spacecraft from the space station no earlier than 6:04 p.m. EDT on Sept. 6.

The vehicle is expected to land at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at about 12:03 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7 with the help of parachutes, from where it would be returned to Boeing's Starliner factory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency said.

The spacecraft, though it launched into space with two astronauts, will return without them.

Why It Matters: Earlier this month, NASA announced that it would return the two astronauts who went to space via Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore – via a SpaceX vehicle in February.

Williams and Wilmore launched into space on June 5 aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. Though the two were supposed to return in about eight days, technical issues identified with the spacecraft while docking delayed the return journey, and the agency subsequently decided to scrap bringing the astronauts back on the Boeing spacecraft altogether.

Starliner’s return in September is expected to be safe and uneventful as the spacecraft has previously completed a successful uncrewed entry and landing as part of its previous flight tests.

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Photo courtesy: NASA