Finally, good news: the crisis-ridden spaceship ‘Starliner’ has returned to Earth without major problems after three months in space. Two astronauts, however, still have to wait to be picked up.
The capsule, manufactured by the American company Boeing, was released from the International Space Station (ISS) shortly after midnight German time, 400 kilometers above the Earth, without a crew on board, as shown by live footage from the American space agency NASA. After about six hours, the “Starliner” landed in the desert of the American state of New Mexico.
The return went according to plan
Shortly before the “Starliner” landed, first two braking parachutes and then three parachutes opened as planned, allowing the capsule to land softly in the desert. Finally, six landing airbags were deployed. During landing, the capsule is only allowed to travel at a speed of 6.4 kilometers per hour.
A NASA commentator on the livestream said this is roughly equivalent to the speed of an elevator in a tall building.
The moment of landing in the video:
Astronauts must wait
Astronaut Suni Williams and astronaut Barry Wilmore were supposed to fly back to Earth on the spacecraft three months ago. But during the outbound flight, some engines overheated and failed, and helium leaked.
Due to safety concerns, NASA officials decided to keep the two astronauts on the space station. Originally, they were only supposed to stay for eight days, but now it will likely be eight months.
Inconsistencies in risk assessment
Experts from Boeing and NASA disagreed about how great a risk to astronauts’ health a crewed re-entry would have been. Space capsules are subject to enormous forces when they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. Numerous sensors aboard the capsule were designed to measure what conditions would have been like for the people inside as it re-entered the atmosphere.
Williams and Wilmore will be brought back to Earth on another spacecraft: NASA is keeping two of the four places open for them on a mission to the ISS planned for late September with the ‘Dragon’, developed by the private space company SpaceX. The return flight, however, is not scheduled until February.
Space suits are already on Earth
Williams and Wilmore’s two ‘Starliner’ spacesuits, on the other hand, are already back on Earth – because this Boeing equipment cannot be used in the SpaceX capsule. If something happens on the ISS before the new ‘Dragon’ arrives, only Williams can put on a spare spacesuit.
However, in a ‘Dragon’ capsule, two emergency seats were set up for the two in the cargo hold, which also work without a spacesuit. Then, in the event of an emergency on the space station, they could board it together with four other astronauts from the ISS and fly back to Earth.
Source: Krone
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