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Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally returning home to terra firma after nearly a year aboard the International Space Station (ISS). My friend and colleague Stephen Green has done a tremendous job chronicling the two astronauts’ predicament.
Here’s a link to the live broadcast of their return to Earth. The broadcast is set to begin at 4:45 p.m. Eastern:
And here’s some background on their story. Earlier this month, Stephen wrote:
Butch and Suni flew to the International Space Station last June as part of Boeing Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) to certify the spaceship for routine manned missions. Problems with the service module’s thrusters developed during ISS docking and, after weeks of tests, NASA decided to return Starliner to Earth unmanned, and juggle the crew schedule so that Suni and Butch could return on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with empty seats.
And Another Thing: For what it’s worth, Starliner returned safely to Earth, and had there been astronauts aboard, they would not have been in any danger. However, no more CFT missions have been scheduled, and Boeing has yet to say whether they’ve solved the thruster issues. With ISS tentatively scheduled to be de-orbited in 2030 (or sooner), the Starliner might never fly again.
