Boeing’s Starliner completed its mission from the International Space Station with a successful deorbit burn, re-entry, and parachute-assisted landing in New Mexico. Its advanced heat shield and airbag system facilitated a safe landing, showcasing its capabilities as a reusable spacecraft.
At 6:04 p.m. EDT on September 6, Starliner autonomously undocked from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module, and mission managers gave a “go” for the spacecraft to proceed for a deorbit burn.
At 11:18 p.m. EDT, Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner spacecraft completed its deorbit burn as expected over the Pacific Ocean. About two and a half minutes later, the spacecraft’s expendable service module separated. The service module provided propulsion and power leading up to the deorbit burn.
The next milestone was about 15 minutes later with entry interface at 400,000 feet above Earth, when Starliner angled itself and its heat shield for re-entry. As the hottest part of re-entry, the spacecraft’s heat shield reached 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered the atmosphere.
Starliner is equipped with an ablative heat shield containing a layer of plastic resin that will heat up to gas and carry the heat away from the crew capsule through convection. This process helps keep the temperature inside the capsule around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Similar heat shields were used on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecrafts.
Around 30,000 feet after atmospheric re-entry, the forward heat shield separated from the spacecraft and the drogue parachutes inflated to help slow down the uncrewed capsule.
About 45 seconds later, at around 8,000 feet, the drogue parachutes separated to make way for three larger main parachutes to deploy, slow down Starliner to 4 miles per hour, and allow an airbag-assisted landing.
Less than two minutes from landing on U.S. soil after spending three months at the International Space Station, inflated its airbags for landing. The airbags are filled with nitrogen to cushion Starliner’s landing.
At 12:01 a.m. EDT, Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner spacecraft landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
The NASA and Boeing landing and recovery team was stationed at a holding zone near the landing site. After landing, technicians will use equipment to “sniff” the spacecraft for any lingering hypergolic fluids before approaching Starliner, opening the hatch, and unloading time-critical cargo. The spacecraft will then be transported to Boeing facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Starliner is the first American-made orbital crew capsule designed to perform a ground landing as a reusable spacecraft.
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2 Comments
They are Aliens
Good news. The Starliner spacecraft’s first flight has proven that setting down safely on land after reentry can become the norm. The few problems that were noted do not sound like major problems.