Boeing’s Starliner returned to Earth without astronauts on board, landing at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, at 10:01 p.m. MDT on September 6, 2024 (12:01 a.m. EDT on September 7). NASA had left Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the International Space Station because it could not establish enough confidence in the spacecraft’s helium leaks and reaction-control thruster performance for a crewed return. TIME reported that the two blue Boeing spacesuits used for launch came back inside the empty capsule.
Why Starliner came back empty
Starliner’s return was changed from a crewed landing to an autonomous one during NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The agency judged that unresolved technical uncertainty—not a lack of room or a change in the astronauts’ mission—made bringing the crew home aboard Starliner an unacceptable risk.
- Helium leaks: Leaks affected the system used to pressurize Starliner’s propulsion hardware.
- Reaction-control thrusters: Several thrusters had performance problems that engineers were still investigating.
- Safety confidence: NASA said experts did not reach the level of concurrence required for a human-spaceflight return.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson summarized the decision on August 24, 2024: “The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.”
Where Wilmore and Williams went instead
The astronauts remained aboard the ISS after Starliner departed. NASA reassigned their ride home to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, extending what had originally been planned as a short test-flight stay. Their continued station assignment was therefore part of the revised flight plan, not an emergency evacuation.
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What was inside the returning capsule
NASA’s landing and mission-closeout releases confirm that Starliner returned uncrewed, but they do not identify the capsule’s clothing or other internal items. TIME reported on September 9, 2024, that the two blue Boeing spacesuits worn for launch were still aboard when Starliner landed. That suit detail comes from TIME’s reporting rather than a quoted NASA inventory statement.
The available reporting does not establish a special “two suits” cargo statistic beyond that account, and it does not provide a verified mass for the suits.
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Mission timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 5, 2024 | Wilmore and Williams launched on NASA’s first Starliner flight carrying astronauts. |
| June 6, 2024 | NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and reaction-control thruster issues as Starliner approached the station. |
| August 24, 2024 | NASA announced that Starliner would return without its crew and that the astronauts would remain on the ISS for Crew-9. |
| After landing | Boeing said the reusable crew module would be sent to Kennedy Space Center for mission-data analysis. |
How Starliner’s autonomous landing was designed to work
NASA’s preflight landing explainer described the planned sequence for an uncrewed or crewed return. Operational and weather checks precede undocking, followed by departure burns. A roughly 60-second deorbit burn commits the spacecraft to its landing corridor. Starliner’s service module then separates and burns up during re-entry.
The crew module is designed to deploy two drogue parachutes followed by three main parachutes. Six landing bags inflate beneath the capsule for touchdown. These figures describe the planned landing architecture; they are not a postflight inspection report.
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What the landing meant for the program
NASA described the mission as a three-month test flight and said it would review the data against certification requirements before approving Starliner for routine crew transportation. The successful autonomous landing demonstrated that the spacecraft could return safely without its occupants, while the decision to leave the astronauts in orbit underscored that a safe test result is not the same as certification for regular crewed missions.
After touchdown, NASA’s Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate, said, “I am extremely proud of the work our collective team put into this entire flight test, and we are pleased to see Starliner’s safe return.”
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