Boeing's Starliner space capsule landed in the New Mexico desert Thursday, after a six-day journey in which it visited the International Space Station and which could lead to more astronaut missions.
Under three parachutes, the capsule landed at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at 6:49 p.m. Eastern time without any crew members on board. The landing was cushioned by airbags.
The landing was the final phase of a vital test for Boeing and NASA, which required the aerospace company to demonstrate it could independently fly the aircraft to and from the space station before enabling it to transport astronauts.
NASA and Boeing said that the return trip was flawless, from undocking with the space station to firing its thrusters to deorbit and entering the atmosphere.
Its heat shield experienced temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it returned to Earth.
On the live transmission of the landing, Lauren Seabrook, a Boeing spokesman, stated, "Just a wonderful touchdown in White Sands this evening."
She said that the spacecraft landed around three-tenths of a mile southeast of the landing spot. However, it is unknown when the first crewed flight might occur.
Two of the ship's main thrusters shut down en route to the station when sensors detected difficulties. Boeing stated that two smaller rockets used to orient the spacecraft for docking also malfunctioned when the spacecraft approached the station.
In addition, the thermal control system of the spacecraft, which kept the spacecraft at the proper temperature, failed.
NASA and Boeing hailed the trip as a "historic" first that would provide the space agency with an alternative to SpaceX for transporting supplies and passengers to the space station.
Mark Nappi, a vice president at Boeing who supervises the Starliner program, stated that despite the issues, the "spacecraft is in outstanding condition" and "performed as intended."
The director of NASA's commercial crew program, Steve Stich, stated last week that the difficulties were resolved without too much difficulty, but that the "failures" must be reviewed.
After the docking, he added, they have a lot of redundancy that didn't impair the rendezvous procedures or the rest of the mission. "I am certain that following the trip, we will examine the failures there to determine what transpired."
Boeing had to scrap a second effort to launch the Starliner capsule last summer because of issues with the propulsion system, which was supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
