Boeing Starliner completes key test mission to ISS, with some hiccups

Factfile on Boeing Starliner spacecraft, launched for the International Space Station on Thursday.

The spaceship landed in a puff of sand in the New Mexico desert, wrapping up a six-day mission crucial to restoring Boeing's reputation after past failures

Boeing's Starliner capsule returned to Earth Wednesday in the final step of a key uncrewed test flight to prove itself worthy of providing rides for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

The gumdrop-shaped spaceship landed in a puff of sand at 4:49 pm local time (2249 GMT) in the New Mexico desert, wrapping up a six-day mission crucial to restoring Boeing's reputation after past failures.

Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) was the last hurdle for Starliner to clear before it carries humans in another test flight due to take place by the end of this year. If that succeeds, the spaceship will begin regular service.

"We really do have the crewed flight test next on our focus," he added.

Both companies were awarded fixed-price contracts -- $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX -- in 2014, shortly after the end of the Space Shuttle program, during a time when the United States was left reliant on Russian Soyuz rockets for rides to the ISS.

Starliner docked with the orbital outpost on Friday, a day after blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The spacecraft brought back more than 600 pounds (270 kilograms) of cargo, including tanks that provide breathable air to station crew members, which will be refurbished and taken back up on a future flight.

Having shed most of its velocity, it deployed a sequence of parachutes culminating in its three giant main chutes, colored red, white and blue. At 3,000 feet (915 meters), it jettisoned its base heat shield -- revealing airbags that inflated to aid a gentle landing.

Early on, two thrusters responsible for placing Starliner in a stable orbit failed, though officials insisted there was plenty of redundancy built into the system to overcome the problem.

After touchdown, recovery teams detected hydrazine vapor around Starliner and had to back off until it cleared. Stich later explained that this sometimes occurs when a spaceship doesn't burn all its propellant, and there was no evidence of a leak.

Overall, the glitches were minor compared to the troubles Starliner saw during its first test launch, back in 2019, when one software bug caused it to burn too much fuel to reach its destination, and another almost meant that the vehicle was destroyed during re-entry.

Boeing and NASA also tried to launch Starliner in August 2021, but the capsule was rolled back from the launchpad to address sticky valves that did not open as they should.

"There's lots of emotion," said Mark Nappi of Boeing. "(I'm) really happy for this team of people who have been working on this for years, and waiting for today."

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