Boeing’s Starliner capsule will depart the International Space Station without astronauts today (Sept. 6), and you can watch the action live.
A livestream of Starliner’s homecoming will begin at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT) today, featuring the capsule’s undocking at 6:04 p.m. EDT (2204 GMT). You can watch it here at Space.com, via NASA Television.
Landing, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, is scheduled about six hours later, on Saturday (Sept. 7) at 12:03 a.m. EDT (0403 GMT or 10:03 p.m. local time Sept. 6). NASA will livestream that event as well, starting at 10:50 p.m. EDT (0250 GMT).
Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station (ISS) — the capsule’s first-ever human spaceflight — lifted off on June 5 and docked with the orbiting complex on June 6, although the first docking attempt was waved off. Starliner experienced helium leaks before launch and, during docking, five of its 28 reaction control system thrusters went offline.
CFT was originally supposed to last about 10 days. But NASA authorized a mission extension that eventually stretched to about three months, to allow for extensive ground and space testing on Starliner’s propulsion system before senior agency reviews authorizing the spacecraft to land.
NASA ultimately decided that sending CFT’s two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, home on Starliner was too risky. So the duo will ride home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon in February 2025, while Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed.
