Starliner after landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Image Credit: NASA
Boeing's reusable crew vehicle had aimed to dock with the station this week but things didn't go quite to plan.
Similar to Lockheed Martin's Orion capsule, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner is designed to carry astronauts up into space as part of ongoing efforts to end NASA's reliance on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft for its crew transportation needs.
Starliner launched on its maiden unmanned flight on Friday morning with the intention of rendez-vousing with the station to demonstrate its docking capabilities, however a timing error meant that it ended up in the wrong orbit and was no longer able to reach its target.
After spending just 48 hours circling the Earth, the capsule returned for a successful touchdown at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico earlier today.
Despite the technical issues however, the future is looking bright for Starliner.
"It was an absolute bullseye, better than I think anybody anticipated," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said of the landing.
"That's good for the agency, it's good for Boeing; that's good for the United States of America."
It will likely be a good few months however before the capsule can launch again.
NASA is currently holding a news conference. They have said that the Starliner will not be able to reach the ISS as planned. It will raise it's orbit later today and will attempt a landing at White Sands, New Mexico on Sunday,
They cannot execute a simple docking in 2019? That's hilarious at best. I'm sure they had much better technology at their disposal half a century ago so they could achieve all those things with their eyes closed.
Anything that is man-made can have flaws and be less than perfect. Remember the events surrounding Apollo 13? These private companies, on the whole, are doing amazing work.
Well Boeing didn't look good this year... 737 max huge fail, 767 tanker mishaps and grounded due to tools and debris left everywhere during construction, 777 pressurization fail, capsule fail to reach ISS... Outch, they need to sort their s*** fast !
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