After mission failure, Boeing Starliner returning to Earth early
Washington DC: Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft will return to Earth on Sunday, six days early, after a clock problem prevented a rendezvous with the International Space Station, NASA and the aerospace giant confirmed Saturday.
The uncrewed Starliner capsule is now scheduled to land Sunday at 05:47 am (local time) at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The capsule is currently in a low, 250-kilometer (155-mile) orbit. Boeing engineers are programming it to re-enter the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Parachutes will slow its descent, and huge airbags will be deployed to cushion its desert landing.
Starliner's failure was the latest serious setback for Boeing, which is still reeling from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max airliner. The crashes, in October 2018 in Indonesia and in March 2019 in Ethiopia, claimed a total 346 lives.
The aerospace company plans to suspend production of the plane in January.
The Starliner capsule was launched Friday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but shortly after separating from its Atlas V launch rocket its thrusters failed to activate as planned, preventing it from reaching an orbit high enough to meet up with the ISS.
The space station orbits at an altitude of about 400 kilometers above sea level.
After calculating that the craft had burned too much propellant for several minutes -- owing to a clock problem -- Boeing and NASA determined that the Starliner would have to return to Earth without fulfilling its planned mission.
Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing's space and launch division, told reporters that "we started the clock at the wrong time." The craft, assuming it was at a different stage of its flight, burned much more propellant than it should have.
The flight -- carrying only a dummy into space -- was meant to be a final dress rehearsal before a crewed flight.
But NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine insisted that the mission was not a complete failure.
"The NASA team and the Boeing team have been working hand in glove to accomplish as many of the test objectives as we can," he said.
(image form ndtv.com)
