Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft is set to return to Earth just over a week from now with managers setting a date of no earlier than September 6 for undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) and September 7 to land at White Sands in New Mexico.

For the Starliner's crew, however, the stay in space will be far from over as the duo will join the Crew-9 mission and return to Earth around February 2025, once the Crew-9 capsule arrives at the ISS.

After Starliner departs and until Crew-9 arrives, the only emergency escape system available to the Starliner crew, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, will be in the pressurized cargo area of the Crew-8 capsule, which has been docked at the ISS since March.

There also aren't enough pressure suits to go around in the event of a contingency. Boeing suits are not compatible with the SpaceX spacecraft and vice versa.

The need to use Crew-8 as an escape vehicle for six crew members will only last a few weeks. Although SpaceX's Falcon 9 is grounded following a booster landing mishap earlier this week, the company will likely be permitted to resume launches in relatively short order. The Crew-9 spacecraft will arrive with only two astronauts, two spare seats, and extra gear for Wilmore and Williams.

At the start of August, NASA adjusted the launch date of Crew-9 to no earlier than September 24 "for operational flexibility."

The original plan called for Boeing's Starliner, aka the Calamity Capsule, to return with a crew. An uncrewed, autonomous return has required some changes within the spacecraft's systems to allow the Starliner to make its own way back to Earth, with ground teams standing by to remotely command the spacecraft during undocking and re-entry if necessary.

The Starliner capsule will then return by parachute to an airbag-assisted landing before being secured and shipped back to the factory. Unfortunately, the thrusters that played a significant role in the decision not to risk a crew onboard the spacecraft will be burnt up in the atmosphere, along with the spacecraft's service module.

Undocking is set for no earlier than 1804 EDT on September 6, and landing is expected at 0003 on September 7. There'll be no ticker-tape parade waiting, just NASA and Boeing engineers dealing with the disappointment of a mission that did not go according to plan. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/30/starliner_return_date/