LIVE: Boeing’s Starliner Undocks From Space Station, Returns To Earth Without Astronauts

e e we're now just over 6 minutes away from the planned undocking at 50:04 p.m. central as we continue to stand by for Starliner departure from the International Space Station I'll hand it over to NASA's Rob navius for an update from the International Space Station flight control room thanks Anna here in the space station flight control room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston the uh flight control team led by flight director Anthony varia is in the final moments before the expected undocking of uh Starliner from the forward Port of the harmony module on the International Space Station once uh the undocking is complete and Starliner has exited the approach ellipsoid that you heard Lauren describe just a moment or two ago the uh nine crew members on board the station led by Commander Al kenko will begin their sleep period they're going to be moving into an off-duty period on Saturday the vacancy of the forward Port of Harmony will open up uh that port for the uh beginning of two crew rotations over the next several weeks next Wednesday NASA's Don Pettit and roscosmos cosmonauts Al uh Alexi of chinin and Ivan Vagner will be launching from the bik and or Cosmo Drome in Kazakhstan on a two orbit rendevu to reach the International Space Station that will swell the station's population to 12 and uh begin an 11-day Handover with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and kenko and Nikolai Chu who will be departing the station on September 23rd a day later if everything goes as planned NASA NASA's uh Nick ha and Ros Cosmos cos man alexand Alexander gorinov will be launching from the Cape Canaveral space force station on the SpaceX crew Dragon Freedom uh they will uh be a two-man crew to reach the International Space Station and provide the orbital Uber if you will for Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams to come home on next February with Wilmore and Williams completing what is expected to be about a 262 day Mission meanwhile the crew8 crew m Dominic Mike Barrett Janette EPs and Alexander greenin are in the final weeks of their mission on board the station they are planning to depart after a 5-day Handover with he and gorbin off that Handover will uh lead the way for a departure on or around October 1st the crew a crew will then be coming home to bring the station back to its compliment of seven crew members so with that we're about uh 3 and A2 minutes away from the planned undocking of Starliner will be watching carefully it will take about 21 1/2 minutes from undocking for Starliner to exit the approach ellipsoid that you heard Lauren describe a moment ago that's that 2 and 1/2 Mile Long by 1.2 mile wide Corridor if you will the neighborhood of the International Space Station so we'll be following along as Starliner begins its journey home and a landing at midnight eastern time at the we sand space Harbor in New Mexico with that we'll turn it back to you Anna in the Starliner control room station Houston Space ground 2 for Starliner undock status go ahead ISS and Starliner flight control teams remain go for an ontime undock at 2204 please reform 1 decimal 106 crew CST 100 approach and departure monitoring steps two decimal 2 into decimal 3 verbally call Houston when physical set is confirmed be advised that NDS hook Motors are driving space to space calm may be ready say crew copies ready for undu monitoring thank you Rob and we just heard some conversation between the crew on the International Space Station and the teams here in the Starliner Mission Control confirming that we are continuing to be go for an undock in just under 2 minutes from now at 5:04 p.m. e Central 6:04 p.m. Eastern we are standing by for the command of the undock ATP or authority to proceed once the authority to proceed is issued for undocking the NDS or NASA docking system hooks will begin to open and there are 12 hooks that seal the surfaces between the NDS and the ISS International docking adapter Ida once all 12 hooks are open Springs on Starliner docking ring will push the spacecraft away from the space station and flight director Chloe Marion just asked for quiet in the room as we are approaching one minute out from Starliner undocking and we just heard confirmation that the umbilicals are retracting and hooks are beginning to drive 30 seconds separation confirmed Starliner is now backing away from station and starting its return to Earth Starliner sters will then complete two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting lab the vehicle is now about 2 meters away from the International Space Station at the time of undocking Starliner in the International Space Station we're flying approximately 260 statute miles over Central China Starliner will be beginning a breakout burn soon which will take the spacecraft forward and above station during this burn sequence Starliner thrusters will perform a series of 12 short firings the entire sequence takes about 5 minutes to complete and allows Starliner to quickly break out to outside the approach ellipsoid or AE and about 4 minutes into the burn sequence Starliner will exit the keep out sphere or the Kos and you can see those thrusters firing there on the left of your screen as Starliner backs away from space station and we are now just uh 35 M away from the International Space Station we saw a good first burn ISS ISS enabled confirmation all 27 Jets have fired Houston copies ISS thrusters enabled and you're seeing the light show there on your screen and the first three of the 12 firings have completed and there's about a 100 second pause until the fourth burn Starliner is about 60 M away and fight controllers are reporting good attitude and good control we are standing by for the fourth of the 12 Burns in the series of firings as part of the breakout burn as a reminder the entire sequence will take about 5 minutes to complete about 4 minutes into the sequence Starliner will cross what is known as the appro or the keep out sphere the keep out sphere is an imaginary 200 M sphere centered on the space station we are 15 seconds away from the fourth burn in the series of 12 and you just saw burn for which just completed we're hearing good burn and the fifth burn and that sequence of 12 just completed and it was a good burn the sixth burn and the series of 12 was just completed and it was a good burn we have we are halfway through the series of 12 six more to go you might be able to see some of those lights on the front of Starliner a red and a green and a white those indicate the different sides of Starliner and they're used by the ISS crew to watch Starliner move away from the ISS along the undocking axis and we just heard good confirmation of both Burns seven and eight completed Starliner undocked approximately 5 minutes ago and has just a handful of short firings left in its breakouts breakout burn and it is now about 150 M away from the International Space Station and we heard confirmation of a good burn n three more to go burn 10 good burn we have one more burn to go but they have confirmed that Starliner has crossed the KE bout sphere or the Kos which is an imaginary 200 M sphere centered on the international speed station that helps flight controllers here on the ground monitor the arrival and departure of visiting Vehicles station Houston Space to ground 2 Starliner has exited the keep out sphere she's exited the keep out sphere a reminder this automated breakout sequence was chosen to use starliners forward thrusters which have remained nominal during this flight and we heard confirmation that all 12 Burns in this series of breakout burn firings have completed and they were all good Burns Starliner has crossed the keep out sphere here so the next milestone for Starliner departure will be crossing the approach ellipsoid or AE the AE is another invisible shape monitored by the flight control team measuring 4 km x 2 km x 2 km Starliner is scheduled to cross the approach ellipsoid in about 10 minutes Vehicles outside the AE have to be we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach lipoid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities once outside the approach ellipsoid joint operations between Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room will conclude and Starliner will be on a path back to Earth we're now taking a look from the Vesta system which stands for vision-based electrooptical sensor tracking assembly it's a bit of a mouthful so we like to call it Vesta and this this is a look from Starliner back at the International Space Station the system is really the eyes of Starliner it's able to pick up on features on the outside of station like handrails and reflectors you can see some of that on your screen there in the outlines and it's the way to assess Starliner position and attitude it also gives the ground teams a very accurate look at Starliner location relative to the station so earlier we were taking a look from the station back at Starliner now we're looking from Starliner back at station we're just under 10 minutes away from the AE exit so in the meantime we will check back in with NASA's Rob navius in the international spa space station flight control room Rob thank you guys um flight Dynamics has reported that Starliner is is on a perfect trajectory backing away from the International Space Station and opening uh a rate of about 13 and a half statued miles per rev at the time of the deorbit burn at uh 1017 and 132s p.m. central time later this evening the uh vehicle will be about 56 statute miles away from the International Space Station that deorbit burn by the way will be a 59 second burn to slow Starliner down by with the forward Port of Harmony now vacant that Drome in Kazakhstan Don peted of NASA and rosmos cosmonauts Alexi of chinin and Ivon Vagner and their backups are in the final stages of their preparations for launch next Wednesday their soyu 2.1a booster and the soyu ms26 spacecraft that they will ride to orbit uh they that vehicle will roll out to the Launchpad in bikan or on Sunday and then final preparations will lead them to a launch next Wednesday at 11:23 a.m. Central Time heading for a two orbit 3-hour 10-minute journey to dock to the International Space Station's rosette module now that forward port on Harmony that was just vacated by Starliner departure will be the Port of Call for NASA astronaut Nick ha and Ros Cosmos Cosmonaut Alexander gorbin off and their launch no earlier than September 24th on the SpaceX at the Cape Canaveral space force station that will be about a 30-hour transit for those two crew members to reach the International Space Station and the automated docking to the forward Port of Harmony ultimately he gorbin off Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams will do a relocation of the uh SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the forward Port of Harmony to the Zenith Port of Harmony opening up that forward port for the arrival of the next SpaceX cargo ship SpaceX 31 that's scheduled for launch in October so a lot of activities uh lying ahead for the space station crew the uh crew aboard the International Space Station soon will begin its sleep period and an off duty day on Saturday while the activity shifts over to the white flight control room down the hall as uh they are in a shift Handover right now uh flight director Rick henling will be taking over shortly to supervis entry and Landing operations and the team over there will be monitoring the progress of Starliner as it moves to its deorbit position about 56 statued miles away from the International Space Station with that we'll turn it back to the white ficker and Anna and Lauren thank you rob Starliner is now about 750 m away from the International Space Station as it continues to make its way to the approach ellipsoid exit again that approach ellipsoid exit is targeted for 525 and 302s p.m. central Time 6:25 and 302s p.m. eastern time and everything continues to proceed as planned with Starliner departure and return back to Earth and you're looking live at Starliner in free drift Engineers are telling us that the breakout Burns all went well thrusters are all looking good everything is nominal as we continue up and around space station and head back to Earth again Starliner undocked just a short while ago from the International Space Station at 5:4 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern as the space station and Starliner we're flying approximately 260 stat Sho miles over Central China and shortly after that physical separation starliners thrusters completed two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed and help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory as part of the separation Burns and Then star Starliner began the breakout burn which was a series of 12 short firings which allowed the spacecraft to quickly move outside um the keep out sphere and it is now approaching the um approach ellipsoid exit and once Starliner is outside of the approach ellipsoid The Joint operations between teams here in the Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room across the hall will end and Starliner will be back on its path to Earth and we are about minutes away from that approach ellipsoid exit and Starliner is now about 900 M away from the International Space Station traveling at a rate of 1.2 m/s that dot in the center of your screen is Starliner looking from space station e we are now about 5 minutes away from the approach ellipsoid exit Starliner undocked from the International Space Station about 16 minutes ago at 5:4 p.m. central 6:04 p.m Eastern Starliner is now just over a th000 MERS away from the International Space Station after Starliner crosses the approach ellipsoid the next milestones for the vehicle will be its entry cover closure and that is planned for about 6:42 p.m. central 7:42 p.m. Eastern and then there will be some checkouts of the omac thrusters at 7:05 p.m. central 8:05 p.m. Eastern and then after that we get into the entry and Landing coverage and the go noo for the deorbit burn will be at approximately 9:57 p.m. central 10:57 p.m. Eastern following with the deorbit burn about 20 minutes later at 10:17 p.m. central 11:17 p.m. Eastern again seeing good views of starliners leaving the International Space Station it's that distant dot on your screen the vehicle is now about 1,120 M away from the International Space Station and we just heard confirmation that Starliner is out of the approach ellipsoid the approach ellipsoid is a imaginary three-dimensional ellipsoid around the space station and V Vehicles outside of the approach ellipsoid have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach ellipsoid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities now that Starliner is outside of the approach ellipsoid joint operations between the Starliner mission control and International Space Station fight control room will conclude and Starliner is now on a path back to Earth so once again Starliner undocked from the International Space Station at 504 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern as the space station was flying 260 stat shoot miles over Central China shortly after physical separation starliners thrusters completed two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory Starliner then began the breakout burn and Starliner smaller Jets performed a series of 12 short Burns to allow the spacecraft to quickly move outside the approach ellipsoid Starliner again crossed the approach ellipsoid moments ago and is now on its journey home the next milestone for Starliner ahead of its deorbit burn targeted for 10:17 p.m. include crossing the entry cover closing the entry cover and conducting checkouts of the omx or the orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters those are the bigger Jets on Starliner for now let's check in one final time with NASA's Rob navius following Starliner exit from the approach ellipsoid thank you guys uh here in the space station flight control room flight director Anthony varia and his team will be remaining on Console throughout the course of the evening keeping a watchful eye on things two for Starliner status good Calypso has exited the approach ellipsoid Sunny we are ready for RWS terar down when you are okay she's on her way home congratulations to uh the undar team and we'll be turned down the r and copies thanks spacecraft communicators here on the station flight control room talking to Sunny Williams International Space Station the uh Starliner is trajectory moving well away from the International Space Station for it's deorbit burn at 1017 and 13 seconds PM this evening once again that'll be a 59 second burn of the four orbital maneuvering and attitude control system uh Jets on the Starliner spacecraft to slow Starliner down by 100 29.9 m/s allowing it to drop out of orbit to begin its uh uh descent back into the Earth's atmosphere and a landing just about midnight Eastern Time 11:00 p.m. central Time give or take a few seconds at the white sand space Harbor in New Mexico with that the space station team will begin to turn its attention to the next major activity that will be the launch out of the bikon or cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday of NASA is Don Pettit and roscosmos cosmonauts Alexi opinan and Ivan Vagner on the soyu ms26 spacecraft that will increase the station's population from 9 to 12 and the beginning of a busy several weeks of crew rotations on the International Space Station leading to the start of expedition 72 so with that uh we're going to call it a day here in the space station flight control room turn it back to you guys in the white flight control room down the hall all right thank you very much Rob Starliner is now on its way back home to Earth and has about a 6-hour journey ahead of Landing we are targeting again around 11:00 Central midnight Eastern for that landing at White Sand space haror in New Mexico we will resume live coverage of star lers deorbit entry and Landing beginning at 9:50 p.m. central 10:50 p.m. Eastern until then thank you for joining us for starliners undocking and departure from the International Space Station this is Mission Control Houston and they've also been keeping a close eye on the wind direction to establish the best recovery zone out at White Sands they've even sent up some weather balloons to check the wind speeds checking Vehicles out there are equipped cameras uh so the team has been calibrating those and again although we don't expect any views from Starliner on its way down we're hoping to get some good ones from those tracking cameras as well as aircraft in the area we plan to have the wb-57 getting views while it is um about 16,000 ft above the ground until the drog parachutes uh deploy and then at about 6,000 ft um we hope to see views from aesta in the area and this is actually a current View of the Cessna as it makes its way out to The Landing site at White Sand space Harbor in New Mexico and this is a shot from one of the ground cameras that we have on site so again although it is dark there we are hoping to to see um to see some good views and in the last few hours the teams there on the ground have been at the holding area loading up their vehicles doing last minute checks making sure all the equipment is ready to go and then shortly they'll begin moving into place to watch Starliner make its Final Approach and then once Starliner lands teams will move closer in a very strategic way they will first stop at about the 500t mark away from the spacecraft and then they'll move in closer to the 150 ft Mark while ground teams safe the vehicle that first team on site with Starliner will be what we call the gold team they start recovery operations by performing what's called a sniff test where they use sensors to check for hydrazine one of the propellants that uh Starliner uses they'll be wearing protective gear known as hazmat suits to prevent exposure to hypergolic propellants hydrazine is used as propellant and it if it turns into a vapor it can be toxic after the snift test they will notify the rest of the Convoy when it's safe to approach and then they're going to check the winds make sure the entire landing and Recovery team is staged uprange from the direction the wind is blowing for added protection now everyone out there is part of a different color team and they wear a vest with that color so it's very obvious who does what so the next up is the silver team and their first job is to ground the spacecraft Starliner will be powered down but there could be some residual electricity so before anyone can touch it they will ground it and discharge it teams are on the ground reporting that um everything is getting into good configuration for the deorbit burn that's now just about um 6 and 1 12 minutes away uh going on uh with the with what we were saying we also will have the blue team that documenting that documents everything that's going on at the Landing site these are photographers from both Boeing and NASA who have situational awareness cameras and again here's a a current view of those teams all um ready to deploy at Landing yeah that's the holding site that we were mentioning and then of course you can see um the mountains there in the background in this black and white View and the Green Team hooks up the HVAC trailers to Starliner to get cooling on it but their first job is to put up an environmental enclosure on the spacecraft and that enclosure looks a lot like a big inflatable it wraps around the vehicle to get cool air around it and make sure the critical systems don't overheat then the red team opens the hatch that is mostly uh Boeing fire rescue they will back up the mobile access platform to Star liner's hatch giving the team access and Starliner will be bringing back more than 900 lounds of cargo including a nitrogen oxygen recharge system or what we call noris tank that NASA um will service and refill for future space station needs the teams will unload that cargo before Starliner has get back to Florida just over 5 minutes to go now until tonight's uh 10:17 p.m. central Time deorbit Burn team here on the ground reports that Starliner has gotten into the right attitude uh kind of the right way it's pointing uh for that burn so everything is looking good we're on track for uh landing at 11:00 p.m. central midnight Eastern e with just a couple minutes or four minutes left to go until the deorbit burn we're going to check in once again with the landing team and Leah Cheshire and Josh Barrett thanks Brandy yeah we are out here uh just waiting in the Convoy area now most of the team is taking part in a safety briefing right now as we prepare to uh watch the deorbit burn and the re-entry and then move in toward the spacecraft like you mentioned it's really dark out here Josh and I were just able to take in the really beautiful sight of uh the Milky Way it's so dark so once the capsule starts to reenter the Earth's atmosphere we expect we expect to have a pretty good view of the streak um as that plasma builds up around the capsule itself that's right we should be seeing it come just over the Southwest Horizon right through the saddle of kind of the mountains uh that are just overlooking the mountain range here and uh remembering back to of1 kind of the view that we should be having here is that we'll hear the Sonic booms as well after we see kind of that plasma envelope and then pretty quickly afterward it is pretty remarkable how quickly it does end up over our heads uh we'll see the flashes from uh the mortars uh which deploy those uh Ford heat shield parachutes which take the Ford heat shield off um then we start hearing those mortors those mortars and then the the parachutes start to deploy um and then it's kind of slow motion from there as it drifts down and we're seeing a lot of movement as teams have just completed that safety briefing here so they're now all walking to join us at the Convoy uh so it looks like we are just a few minutes away from the deorbit burn and the show is really getting on the road soon so with that we're going to turn it back over to you in Houston we are now uh just over two minutes away from the deorbit burn at this point uh Starliner has moved well away from the International Space Station and quite a few kilometers ahead of it as well we had a number of uh smaller Burns to ensure that Starliner was at a safe distance away from the space station before it performs performs the deorbit burn that will bring it out of orbit and on its Journey back to Earth and flight director Rick henfling and his team expect starliners orbital maneuvering attitude control thrust ERS also called omx to fire around 10:17 central time pushing the spacecraft out of its orbital flight path and onto its journey home this deorbit burn will set us up for a touchdown time of about 11:00 p.m. central or 10: p.m. Mountain Daylight time out there in White Sands New Mexico once it's there control teams in Houston will begin powering off starliners radiators and solar rays as the spacecraft now has enough power to get home and sub will be taking over cooling they use water to cool the cabin Starliner is also uh as we said now in the correct attitude for performing the deorbit burn and at this point service module and crew capsule are still attached to each other four of the service modules 12 AF facing orbital maneuvering and attitude control engines are going to be powering the deorbit burn allowing them to separate safely and those engines are each 1,500lb thrusters meaning this burn will take about 6,000 lb of thrust slowing Starliner from its current orbital velocity and bringing it back to Earth's atmosphere for a smooth Landing the small reaction control system or RCS thrusters assist here in holding Starliner in the correct attitude during this test flight our teams ran roughly a million computer mod model simulations showing all the different Thruster combinations possible for a safe return to Earth today just 20 seconds now until the burn starts it'll last uh 59 seconds and again you uh be firing those orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters four orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters on Star ler service module are now firing slowing Starliner down as a capsule against its Journey back to Earth this will take about 59 seconds to complete we're hearing a good all good uh all thrusters firing well so far can see here those uh those representation of those thrusters firing Starliner is maintaining its attitude and as those large orbital maneuvering thrusters are firing smaller reaction control system thrusters are also working keeping the spacecraft in the correct position for the burn still looking good and we did see the uh dber burn cut off successfully teams here on the ground reporting a good burn Starliner is now on its way to wh sand space Harbor New Mexico and a planned touchdown at about 11:00 p.m. central midnight Eastern Time next up on the uh to-do list for tonight is the separation of the service module when the service module's job done it'll be disposed of over the Pacific Ocean leaving the uncrewed crew module to carry on alone in addition to all its other jobs the service module has spent the flight protecting the crew module's heat shield jetting it uncovers that critical piece of equipment allowing it to shelter the spacecraft as it begins traveling back through the Earth's atmosphere the crew module will then make its final attitude adjustments to make sure the heat shield is at exactly the right angle to provide that protection and those fine-tuned adjustments are really just a strong capability of star liner guidance navigation and control system in fact on the two previous flights Starliner made Bullseye Landings thanks to that system Starliner is maneuvering into position for that jettison at this time team here on the ground reporting that uh Starliner is in a good attitude pointing the right direction for the service module separation and the service module has just jettisoned separated and is now Falling Away it will burn up during re-entry over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean and Starliner will continue on its path to New Mexico where the landing and Recovery team is waiting for Touchdown Starliner is now angling itself and its heat shield for re-entry an entry interface is coming up in just about 10 minutes that's the hottest part of the re-entry process with Starliner heat shield reaching about 3000° to protect Starliner from those heat loads the spacecraft has what's called an ablative heat shield the outer surface of that Shield heats up to a gas which then carries the heat away from the crew module through convection and our team calls this process a game of Threes because during entry interface the heat shield will handle those temperatures of about 3,000 de but it will convert that heat to about 300° with only 3 in of a blader and because of this protection during this hottest part of re-entry the inside of the spacecraft remains at about room temperature when Starliner returned from its last two flights the capsules landed with two black stripes up the sides indicating the heat shield was abl bladed as intended so we do expect to see that again today and the team considers that a bit of a badge of honor e Rock e e once again uh we did see uh Starliner deorbit or uh performance deorbit burn on time at 10:17 p.m. central Time and then quickly turned around and jettisoned its surface module now that it has performed its Duty over the course of the mission we are still about uh 20 minutes away from entry interface but things will start to happen quickly after that about 4 minutes after we go into the entry interface the heat from starliners re-entry will become so intense that the plasma will begin to form around the spacecraft causing a blackout in Communications with Starliner for about 4 and a half minutes and after that we'll see starliners Starliner jettison its forward heat shield that's been protecting the parachutes during GRE entry then when Starliner is around 30,000 ft above the ground the spacecraft's parachute sequence will begin two drawing par drog parachutes rather will uh start slowing Starliner down and then they'll detach and three main parachutes will deploy and inflate at about 3,000 ft off the ground the base heat shield jettison exposing the airbags and then at touchdown those airbags absorb the initial force of Landing cushioning the spacecraft for a soft safe return to Earth e currently Starliner is about 213 miles above the uh South Pacific Ocean it's just past the southernmost portion of this final orbit coming around the uh southern coast of Australia and now is going to begin making its way northward towards uh the west coast of the United States for that um landing at 11:00 p.m. central Time midnight eastern time at Whit sand space Harbor in New Mexico again we've had the deorbit burn that took place just as planned at 107 a 59 second burn that uh changed the uh Starliner speed by about uh 290 m per hour 130 m/s that made way for the service module separation and the next Milestone we'll be watching for is an entry interface coming up around 10:45 still about 10 minutes away e live view here of the uh recovery forces staged uh near The Landing site ready to move in when Starliner touches down we are taking off Milestones as expected for that uh 11:00 p.m. central midnight Eastern or 10: p.m. mountain time touchdown today in New Mexico again Starliner performed its deorbit burn about 12 minutes ago the thrusters performed nominally and the flight home is going smooth e e we're still about uh 14 minutes away from the entry interface which is our next Milestone I think I said earlier that we we're 10 minutes away that was a mistake um but about 14 minutes from now we'll be experiencing the uh the atmosphere for the first time since Starliner launched and since we do have a little time we're going to check back in with the landing team Lee and Josh how are things going out there thanks Brandy yeah that was a great view of the uh Landing Convoy all lined up I was just watching some of the gold team members getting suited up as you mentioned earlier that's going to be the first team to come in and inspect the vehicle they're sniff for those um hyper gools or any of those dangerous fumes before the rest of the teams get the go to move in and approach the capsule of course it's kind of a waiting game right now as we are still waiting to spot Starliner uh coming from the southwest so a lot of us are outside of the Convoy right now and keeping our eyes on the skies yeah that's right we're we've got about just under probably three dozen Vehicles all lined up in three rows just waiting to get that touchdown signal again going through that Convoy list that you guys went through already so well behind that gold team after Starliner is declared safe the silver team moves in and they do the electrical grounding they'll also stabilize the vehicle just in case the airbags start deflating we make sure that the hatch has uh a good stable orientation for red team to come in and they're the ones with the hatch orientation uh and once uh the red team establishes hatch access actually the silver team has a fun job tonight in the dark they're going to go start looking for the pieces that came off of Starliner those heat shields uh some of those Lids from those those parachute mortars uh and then after that after red team has hatch access and opens up the hatch uh NASA's ISS program folks are going to come in for the cardo inspection so again we are expecting to start seeing Starliner coming across the Horizon around the time that entry interface begins but until then just wanted to give you guys a hit from The Landing site the latest that we have going on here so we'll toss it back over to you in Mission Control Houston thanks so much Lea and Josh we are watching for that entry interface as well we're now about uh 12 minutes away Starliner continuing to make good progress uh following at 10:17 p.m. central Time D orbit burn again we're looking at the landing and Recovery team set up at the holding Zone there at White Sands Josh and Leah are embedded with that Convoy and they will make a very strategic move toward the spacecraft after touchdown first stopping at about the 500t mark and then they'll get the go to move forward to the 150t mark and then once the vehicle is considered safe they will move in e with the new orbit burn complete and uh the service mod module separated the spacecraft's heat shield is now exposed and ready to begin experiencing the atmosphere again uh the Starliner is going to make some final attitude adjustments that keep that heat shield pointing at exactly the right angle and next step after that is entry interface again just coming up in a few minutes at 400,00 th000 ft above Earth Starliner faces temperatures of 3000° f from the plasma created by air friction around the spacecraft but Starliner can handle that heat with its heat shield which is made of an ablade of material designed to keep the inside of the spacecraft at about 70° few minutes later Starliner will experience an expected blackout in Communications and that will last for about 4 and 1/2 minutes at 30,000 ft and just 11 minutes before landing Starliner jettison it's forward heat shield exposing the spacecraft's parachute system then two drug shoots will deploy in increasing drag and significantly slowing down star liner then three pilot parachutes will pull out the main shoots allowing the spacecraft to continue its slow and St descent for another 8,000 ft towards the landing Zone and once the main parachutes are fully inflated star liner's bucket handle releases and what that does is it just basically levels out the spacecraft ahead of touchdown and then the base heat shield that protected Starliner through re-entry will separate at about 3,000 ft uncovering The Landing airbags those airbags of course will fill with nitrogen allowing for Starliner to land softly and safely there in the sand less than 10 minutes to go now before we do get to that entry interface point and uh now just 2 24 and A2 minutes away from The Landing at wh sand space Harbor everything's pretty quiet in the room which is a good sign things are continuing to go smoothly as Starliner begins making it way making its way back to Earth you're taking a look there at flight directors Rick henfling on the left speaking with Mike Lamers on the right Rick is the flight director for this Landing operation Mike is weather flight director they are tag teaming this operation team has been keeping a close eye on weather at the Landing site but everything uh looks pretty good for tonight's touchdown yeah about 79° fah out there they reported 10 Mi visibility the winds are within the limits so we are looking good for a touchdown coming up right about 11:00 p.m. Central Time e 7 minutes to go now and to entry interface and then uh that intense heating will start about 2 minutes after we do begin the interface that'll last about 4 and a half minutes during which time we'll be in a blackout Starliner is currently about 30 mil 149 miles rather above uh the Pacific Ocean heading northward towards the western coast of the United States and it's touchdown in New Mexico we're taking a look here at the Landing trajectory there on the left of your screen you can see that line that crosses over the Baja Peninsula and that is the track Starliner will take as it makes its way into New Mexico as it gets closer to the ground people living in the area might get um a bright shot of Starliner coming back through the atmosphere and Landing there in White Sands New Mexico you can also see there in the center of the screen the uh to-do list basically before before we do get to Landing the service module separation highlighted in green because that one's already taken place and next up is the entry interface about 5 minutes away from now and flight controllers here in the room are reporting good attitude for that entry interface coming up again in just under 5 minutes e e e e Anders forward facing reaction control system or RCS thrusters which have been performing nominally during this flight Starliner will then begin a breakout burn which will take the spacecraft forward and above the station during this burn sequence starliners thrusters will perform a series of 12 short firings this entire sequence will take about 5 minutes to complete and will allow Starliner to quickly break out outside of the approach ellipsoid or AE about 4 minutes into this burn sequence Starliner will exit the keep out sphere or Kos the keep out sphere is an imaginary 200 met spheres centered on the space station once outside the keep out sphere vehicles must provide a four orbit safe free drift trajectory around 510 p.m. central that automated Breakout sequence will be completed and then just 15 minutes later we will be out of the approach ellipsoid the approach ellipsoid is in the same family as the keep out sphere but this time it is an imaginary three-dimensional ellipsoid around the space station Vehicles outside the approach ellip soy have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory and that means the spacecraft would not cross over that imaginary line for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities once outside the approach ellipsoid joint operations between the Starliner mission control and International Space Station flight control room will conclude and Starliner will be on a path back to Earth a few minutes ago teams completed a final weather briefing to analyze weather predictions for the landing site at wh sand space Harbor in New Mexico and the weather continues to look good to support a landing later today as part of the departure preparations for Starliner Mission managers completed a series of operational and weather checks yesterday 24 hours before undocking NASA analyzed the weather predictions for the landing site and there are several different weather criteria that must be met including winds at the selected Landing site must be approximately 13 mph or 12 knots or less when uncrewed and ground temperature tempates must be warmer than 15° F and the cloud ceiling must be at least 1,000 ft one nautical mile of visibility is also required and the area must be clear of precipitation thunderstorms and lightning within an approximately 22 M radius a final weather check will also take place before the spacecraft Ste orbit burn which is currently scheduled for 10:17 p.m. central 11:17 p.m. Eastern and following the weather briefing the navigation and docking lights on Star were turned on the Lars were confirmed to operate and the r cards were enabled for departure the Lars or laser detection and ranging lasers create a 3D picture of the International Space Station for starliners computers to help the spacecraft guide itself around the ISS when it's flying close to the station the ladar system was developed and tested in orbit aboard the space shuttle as they docked with ISS the r cards or remote analog interface unit gathers data on the status and health of critical spacecraft systems during All Phases of the mission this allows the important systems information to be stored aboard the spacecraft so Engineers can review it once the spacecraft lands e e we're now just over 6 minutes away from the planned undocking at 50:04 p.m. central as we continue to stand by for Starliner departure from the International Space Station I'll hand it over to NASA's Rob navius for an update from the International Space Station flight control room thanks Anna here in the space station flight control room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston the flight control team led by flight director Anthony varia is in the final moments before the expected undocking of uh Starliner from the forward Port of the harmony module on the International Space Station once uh the undocking is complete and Starliner has exited the approach ellipsoid that you heard Lauren described just a moment or two ago the uh nine crew members on board the station led by by Commander ala kononenko will begin their sleep period they're going to be moving into an off-duty period on Saturday the vacancy of the forward Port of Harmony will open up uh that port for the uh beginning of two crew rotations over the next several weeks next Wednesday NASA's Don Pettit and roscosmos cosmonauts Al uh Alexi of chinin and Ivan Vagner will be launching from the bik and or Cosmo Drome in Kazakhstan on a two orbit Rendevous to reach the International Space Station that will swell the station's population to 12 and uh begin an 11-day Handover with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Kon Yenko and Nikolai Chu who will be departing the station on September 23rd a day later if everything goes as planned NASA NASA's uh Nick ha and Ros Cosmos cosmina alexand Alexander gorinov will be launching from the Cape Canaveral space force station on the SpaceX crew Dragon Freedom uh they will uh be a two-man crew to reach the International Space Station and provide the orbital Uber if you will for Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams to come home on next February with Wilmore and Williams completing what is expected to be about a 262 day Mission meanwhile the crew eight crew Matt Dominic Mike Barrett Janette EPs and Alexander greenin are in the final week of their mission on board the station they are planning to depart after a 5-day Handover with heg and gorbin off that Handover will uh lead the way for a departure on or around October 1st the crew a crew will then be coming home to bring the station back to its compliment of seven crew members so with that we're about uh 3 and A2 minutes away from the planned undocking of Starliner we'll be watching carefully it will take about 21 1/2 minutes from undocking for Starliner to exit the approach ellipsoid that you heard Lauren describe a moment ago that's that 2 and 1/2 Mile Long by 1.2 M wide Corridor if you will the neighborhood of the International Space Station so we'll be following along as Starliner begins its journey home and a landing at midnight eastern time at the we sand space Harbor in New Mexico with that we'll turn it back to you Anna in the Starliner control room station Houston Space ground 2 for Starliner undock status go ahead ISS and Starliner flight control teams remain go for an ontime undock at 2204 please perform 1 decimal 106 crw cst1 100 approach and departure monitoring steps 2 decimal 2 and two decimal 3 verbally call Houston when physical step is confirmed be advised that NDS hook Motors are driving space to space c may be ready crew copies ready for undock monitoring thank you Rob and we just heard some conversation between the crew on the International Space Station and the teams here in the Starliner michig control affirming that we are continuing to be go for an undock in just under 2 minutes from now at 5:04 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern we are standing by for the command of the undock ATP or authority to proceed once the authority to proceed is issued for undocking the NDS or NASA docking system hooks will begin to open and there are 12 hooks that seal the surfaces between the NDS and the ISS International docking adapter Ida once all 12 hooks are open Springs on Starliner docking ring will push the spacecraft away from the space station and flight director Chloe Marin just asked for quiet in the room as we are approaching one minute out from Star liner undocking and we just heard confirmation that the umbilicals are retracting and hooks are beginning to drive 30 seconds separation confirmed Starliner is now backing away from station and starting its return to Earth Starliner sters will then complete two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting lab the vehicle is now about 2 m away from the International Space Station at the time of undocking Starliner in the International Space Station we're flying approximately 260 statute miles over Central China Starliner will be beginning a breakout burn soon which will take the spacecraft forward and above station during this burn sequence Starliner thrusters will perform a series of 12 short firings the entire sequence takes about 5 minutes to complete and allows Starliner to quickly break out to outside the approach ellipsoid or AE and about 4 minutes into the burn sequence Starliner will exit the keep out sphere or the Kos and you can see those thrusters firing there on the left of your screen as Starliner backs away from space station and we are now just at 35 M away from the International Space Station we saw a good first burn ISS ISS clusters confirmation all 27 Jets have fired Houston copies ISS thrusters enabled and you're seeing the light show there in your screen and the first three of the 12 firings have completed and there's about a 100 second pause until the fourth burn star liner is about 60 M away and fight controllers are reporting good attitude and good control we are standing by for the fourth of the 12 Burns in the series of firings as part of the breakout burn as a reminder the entire sequence will take about 5 minutes to complete about 4 minutes into the sequence star liner will cross what is known as the appro or the keep out sphere the keyot sphere is an imaginary 200 M sphere centered on the space station we are 15 seconds away from the fourth burn in the series of 12 and you just saw burn four which just completed we're hearing good burn and the fifth burn and that sequence of 12 just completed and it was a good burn the sixth burn and the series of 12 was just completed and it was a good burn we have we are halfway through the series of 12 six more to go you might be able to see some of those lights on the front of Starliner a red and a green and a white those indicate that different sides of Starliner and they're used by the ISS crew to watch Starliner move away from the ISS along the undocking access and we just heard good confirmation of both Burns seven and eight completed Starliner undocked approximately 5 minutes ago and has just a handful of short firings left and its breakouts breakout burn and it is now about 150 M away from the International Space Station and we heard confirmation of a good burn n three more to go burn 10 good burn we have one more burn to go but they have confirmed that Starliner has crossed the kout sphere or the Kos which is an imaginary 200 met sphere centered on the International Space Station that helps flight controllers here on the ground monitor the arrival and departure of visiting vehicles station Houston Space to ground 2 Starliner has exited the keep out sphere she's exited the key spere a reminder this automated breakout sequence was chosen to use starliners forward thrusters which have remained nominal during this flight and we heard confirmation that all 12 Burns in this series of breakout burn firings have completed and they were all good Burns Starliner has crossed the keep out sphere so the next milestone for Starliner departure will be crossing the approach ellipsoid or AE the AE is another invisible shape monitored by the flight control team measuring 4 km x 2 km x 2 km Starliner is scheduled to cross the approach ellipsoid and about 10 minutes Vehicles outside the AE have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach o lipoid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities once outside the approach ellipsoid joint operations between Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room will conclude and Starliner will be on a path back to Earth we're now taking a look from the Vesta system which stands for vision-based electrooptical sensor tracking assembly it's a bit of a mouthful so we like to call it Vesta and this is a look from Starliner back at the International Space Station the system is really the eyes of Starliner it's able to pick up on features on the outside of station like handrails and reflectors you can see some of that on your screen there in the outlines and it's the way to assess starliners position and attitude it also gives the ground teams a very accurate look at Starliner location relative to the station so earlier we were taking a look from the station back at Starliner now we're looking for from Starliner back at station we're just under 10 minutes away from the AE exit so in the meantime we will check back in with NASA's Rob navius in the internationala space station flight control room Rob thank you guys um flight Dynamics has reported that Starliner is on a perfect trajectory backing away from the International Space Station and opening uh a rate of about 13 and a half statute miles per rev at the time of the deorbit burn at uh 1017 and 13 seconds p.m. central time later this evening the uh vehicle will be about 56 statute miles away from the International Space Station that deorbit burn by the way will be a 59 second burn to slow Starliner down by Max burn omx the acronym for the orbital maneuvering and attitude control system uh thrusters and jets on the Starliner spacecraft that will enable Starliner to begin to drop out of orbit for its intended Southwest and Northeast trajectory across the Pacific Ocean across Baja California and heading towards its landing at the wh sand space Harbor in New Mexico with the forward Port of Harmony now vacant that Drome in k Don peted of NASA and Ros Cosmos cosmina Alexi of chinin and Ivan Vagner and their backups are in the final stages of their preparations for launch next Wednesday their soyu 2.1a booster and the soyu ms26 spacecraft that they will ride to orbit uh they that vehicle will roll out to the Launchpad in bikan or on Sunday and then final preparations will lead them to a launch next Wednesday at 11:23 a.m. Central Time heading for a two orbit 3-hour 10-minute journey to dock to the International Space Station's rosette module now that forward port on Harmony that was just vacated by Starliner departure will be the Port of Call for NASA astronaut Nick hag and Ros Cosmos cosmina Alexander gorbin off and their launch no earlier than September 24th on the SpaceX at the Cape Canaveral space force station that will be about a 30-hour transit for those uh two crew members to reach the International Space Station and the automated docking to the forward Port of Harmony ultimately ha gorbin off Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams will do a relocation of the uh SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the forward Port of Harmony to the Zenith Port of Harmony opening up that forward port for the arrival of the next SpaceX cargo ship SpaceX 31 that scheduled launch in October so a lot of activities uh lying ahead for the space station crew the uh crew aboard the International Space Station soon will begin its sleep period and an off-duty day on Saturday while the activity shifts over to the white flight control room down the hall as uh they are in a shift Handover right now uh flight director Rick henling will be taking over shortly to supervise entry and Landing operations and uh the team over there will be monitoring the progress of Starliner as it moves to its deorbit position about 56 statued miles away from the International Space Station with that we'll turn it back to the white ficker and Anna and Lauren thank you rob Starliner is now about 750 MERS away from the International Space Station as it continues to make its way to the approach ellipsoid exit again that approach ellip exit is targeted for 5:25 and 302s p.m. central Time 6:25 and 302s p.m. eastern time and everything continues to proceed as planned with starliners departure and return back to Earth and you're looking live at Starliner and free drift Engineers are telling us that the breakout Burns all went well thrusters are all looking good everything is nominal as we continue up and around space station and head back to Earth again Starliner undocked just a short while ago from the International Space Station at 54 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern as the space station and Starliner were flying approximately 260 statute miles over Central China and shortly after that physical separation starliners thrusters completed two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed and help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory as part of the separation Burns and Then star Starliner began the breakout burn which was a series of 12 short firings which allowed the spacecraft to quickly move outside um the keep out sphere and it is now approaching the um approach ellipsoid exit and once Starliner is outside of the approach ellipsoid The Joint operations between teams here and the Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room across the hall will end and Starliner will be back on its path to Earth and we are about 6 minutes away from that approach ellipsoid exit and Starliner is now about 900 M away from the International Space Station traveling at a rate of 1.2 m/ that dot in the center of your screen is Starliner looking from space station e we are now about 5 minutes away from the approach ellipsoid exit Starliner undocked from the International Space Station about 16 minutes ago at 5:4 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern Starliner is now just over 1,000 M away from the International Space Station after Starliner crosses the approach ellipsoid the next milestones for the vehicle will be its entry cover closure and that is planned for about 6:42 p.m. central 7:42 p.m. Eastern and then there will be some checkouts of the omac thrusters at 7:05 p.m. central 8:05 p.m. Eastern and then after that we get into the entry and Landing coverage and the go no go for the deorbit burn will be at approximately 9:57 p.m. central 10:57 p.m. Eastern following with the deorbit burn about 20 minutes later at 10:17 p.m. central 11 11:17 p.m. Eastern again seeing good views of starliners leaving the International Space Station it's that distant dot on your screen the vehicle is now about 1,120 M away from the International Space Station and we just heard confirmation that Starliner is out of the approach ellipsoid the approach ellipsoid is a imaginary three-dimensional ellipsoid around the space station and V Vehicles outside of the approach ellipsoid have to be on what we call a 24 hours safe free drift trajectory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach ellipsoid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities now that Starliner is outside of the approach ellipsoid joint operations between the Starliner mission control and International Space Station fight control room will conclude and Starliner is now on a path back to Earth so once again Starliner undocked from the International Space Station at 5:4 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern as the space station was flying 260 statute miles over Central China shortly after physical separation starliners thrusters completed two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory Starliner then began the breakout burn and Starliner smaller Jets performed a series of 12 short Burns to allow the spacecraft to quickly move outside the approach ellipsoid Starliner again crossed the approach ellipsoid moments ago and is now on its journey home the next milestones for Starliner ahead of its deorbit burn targeted for 10:17 p.m. include crossing the entry cover closing the entry cover and conducting checkouts of the omx or the orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters those are the bigger Jets on Starliner for now let's check in one final time with NASA's Rob navus following Starliner exit from the approach ellipsoid thank you guys uh here in the space station flight control room flight director Anthony varia and his team will be remaining on Console throughout the course of the evening keeping a watchful eye on things two for Starliner status Calypso has exited the approach of ellipsoid Sunny we are ready for RWS tear down when you are okay she's on her way home congratulations to uh the undar team and uh we'll be turned copies thanks spacecraft communicators here in the station flight control room talking to Sunny Williams National Space Station the uh Starliner is ECT trajectory moving well away from the International Space Station it's deorbit burn at 10:17 and 13 seconds p.m. this evening once again that'll be a 59 second burn of the four orbital maneuvering and attitude control system uh Jets on the Starliner spacecraft to slow Starliner down by begin its uh uh descent back into the Earth's atmosphere and a landing just about midnight Eastern Time 11:00 p.m. central Time give or take a few seconds at the white sand space Harbor in New Mexico with that the space station team will begin to turn its attention to the next major activity that will be the launch out of the bikon or cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday of NASA's Don Pettit and roscosmos cosmonauts alexe of chinin and Ivan Vagner on the soyu's ms26 spacecraft that will increase the station's population from 9 to 12 and the beginning of a busy several weeks of crew rotations on the International Space Station leading to the start of expedition 72 so with that uh we're going to call it a day here in the space station flight control room turn it back to you guys in the white flight control room down the hall all right thank you very much Rob Starliner is now on its way back home to Earth and has about a 6-hour journey ahead of Landing we are targeting again around 11:00 Central midnight Eastern for that landing at White Sand space haror in New Mexico we will resume live coverage of starliners deorbit entry in landing beginning at 9:50 p.m. central 10:50 p.m. Eastern until then thank you for joining us for starliners undocking and departure from the International Space Station this is Mission Control Houston jets in the service module after undocking and they all performed as expected and here on the ground the team just uh gave their go officially to Rick henfling today's flight director meaning that uh tonight's Landing of Starliner is on that again is scheduled to happen touchdown at uh 11:00 p.m. Central time or midnight Eastern Time e once again flight director Rick henling has gotten a go from starliners for star for starliners deorbit burn from all of the flight controllers watching over the spacecraft's return tonight and that again means we are officially on for Starliner return to Earth at about 11:00 p.m. central time or midnight Eastern the dart burn at uh 10:17 p.m. central Time Is Now just 17 minutes away that'll be a 59 second firing of four of starliners orbital maneuvering and attitud control thrusters on Starliner service module and joining us live from Starliner Landing Zone with wh Sands at wh Sands space Harbor in New Mexico our colleagues Leah Cheshire from NASA public affairs and Boeing's Josh Barrett Le and Josh how is it going out there thanks Brandy it is going well out here uh we are out here in White Sands the weather right now is about 75 degrees and very light winds approximately 6 miles per hour uh this looks like potentially a picture from earlier today it is quite dark out here at this point we have a beautiful view of the stars and we are lined up in the Convoy getting ready to roll that's right Leah so I've been out here for both of starliners preview Landings the first one was very cold the second one was quite warm and this one feels just about right uh we're following along with two command Vehicles we've got the mlcc or the mobile Landing control center uh they're tied in down in Mission Control in Houston with the people that you're seeing on your screen right now uh we also have the mdtv that's the mobile data and tracking vehicle and on top of that it's got a suite of Optics on top there an infrared camera and two visible cameras one of them with a telescopic Focus so those will be the first things that we'll be seeing Starliner with here from The Landing Zone and you should be seeing those on your screens as well and Leah's got a few more things that she'll talk about that uh should get some cameras on Starliner as well yeah especially the wb-57 NASA plane that took off just a few hours ago uh just as we were heading out here to The Landing site so we arrived here at about 6:00 p.m. local time which is Mountain Time uh and since then have been getting ready lining up uh doing Communications checks between the various teams and just getting ready to eventually drive out to The Landing site once Starliner comes down so uh it is a sea of white gypsum sand out here um and teams are continuing to just prepare as soon as we get into that deorbit burn so they are actually in a h huddle right now talking through some of the next steps for tonight um getting ready to come and join us here in the Convoy as we await to to see the deorbit burn so with that right now we are going to turn it back over to you Brandy and Lauren we are going to stick around though and cannot wait to see Starliner coming straight across the sky thank you thanks so much Leah and Josh we are hoping to get some good views from where you guys are at later today now once we make that final burn to get out of orbit today it'll take about 45 minutes for Starliner to reach its destination again white sand space Harbor New Mexico where we just spoke with our colleagues from Starliner is currently flying with its solar arrays pointed toward the sun recharging the internal batteries to keep its systems powered through Landing the orbital maneuvering and attitude control thrusters or what we call omx will fire for about a minute to conduct the deorbit burn that maneuver slows the spacecraft down from orbital velocities and allows it to start falling back to Earth in a head down position at the end of that deorbit burn Starliner angles its self for re-entry the deorbit burn is just the first in a series of Milestones we're going to be taking off tonight to give you the full rundown uh deorbit burn is scheduled for 10:17 p.m. central as uh as we said we just got the go for that a few minutes ago it's going to be followed by the separation of the crew module from the service module at 10:20 p.m. and the crew module will then continue on on its own at 10:45 p.m. Starliner will begin to fill the uh effects of the Earth's atmosphere again for the first time since its accident in June and a few minutes later around 10:47 the heat from Star liner's reinjury will become so intense that the plas that plasma will begin uh to form around the spacecraft causing a blackout in Communications with Starliner for about 4 and a half minutes once Starliner clears that blackout period things will begin to happen very quickly yeah so then up next at 1056 when Starliner is about po 4.3 Mi above Earth the spacecraft will be done with the forward heat shield that is at the top of the capsule that helped protect it through re-entry and it will jettison it to make way for the parachutes that are stored underneath and then almost immediately those parachutes will begin to deploy first with two smaller drog parachutes that are meant to take the edge off Starliner speed they open up in stages over the course of about 28 seconds and then at 10:57 p.m. when Starliner is about 6 mil up the R parachutes are released and three main parachutes are deployed they also open in stages over about 16 seconds but they stay with the spacecraft all the way until touchdown and again we are expecting that touchdown to come at 11:00 p.m. central just before the touchdown however at 10:58 p.m. Starliner also sheds its based heat shield at the bottom of the capsule to make way for the inflation of six Landing airbags hidden underneath it and those will cushion the vehicle as it lands in New Mexico's desert it's probably worth mentioning that we do not have a video from Starliner if you think back to June on its ascent and journey to the International Space Station um it it's not able to send video down when it's not connected to the space station so we won't be getting INF flat views from it but we do have several cameras out at the Landing site as well as some aircraft in the area that we hoping to get some views from uh but of course it is going to be pretty dark out in the desert at night so um they may be infrared or black and white views um but hopefully we'll we'll get some some good uh camera views to show you and we're taking a live look now from The Landing site but uh the shot is quite dark at the moment you can see just a few lights blinking there uh hopefully as we get uh closer to the ground as Starliner gets closer down we will have some better shots e the landing and Recovery teams have been out in the desert preparing for the spacecraft's return for several days I've been speaking with them to catch up on some of the preps that have been taking place they ran through a full mission dress rehearsal where they practice the landing and Recovery operation with all the different groups and functions and they've also been keeping a close eye on the wind direction to establish the best recovery zone out at White Sands they've even sent up some weather balloons to check the wind speeds tracking Vehicles out there are equipped cameras uh so the team has been calibrating those and again although we don't expect any views from Starliner on its way down we're hoping to get some good ones from those tracking cameras as well as aircraft in the area we plan to have the wb-57 getting views while it is um about 16,000 ft above the ground until the drog parachutes uh deploy and then at about 6,000 ft um we hope to see views from aesta in the area and this is actually a current view of the Cessna as it makes its way out to The Landing site white sand space Harbor in New Mexico and this is a shot from one of the ground cameras that we have on site so again although it is dark there we are hoping to to see um to see some good views and in the last few hours the teams there on the ground have been at the holding area loading up their vehicles doing last minute checks making sure all the equipment is ready to go and then shortly they'll begin moving into place to watch Starliner make its Final Approach and then once Starliner lands teams will move closer in a very strategic way they will first stop at about the 500t mark away from the spacecraft and then they'll move in close to the 150t mark wal ground teams safe the vehicle that first team on site with Starliner will be what we call the gold team they start recovery operations by performing what's called a sniff test where they use sensors to check for hydrazine one of the propellants that uh Starliner uses they'll be wearing protective gear known as hazmat suits to prevent exposure to hypergolic propellants hydrazine is used as propellant and it if it turns into a vapor it can be toxic after the sift test they will notify the rest of the Convoy when it's safe to approach and then they're going to check the winds make sure the entire landing and Recovery team is staged uprange from the direction the wind is blowing for added protection now everyone out there is part of a different color team and they wear a vest with that color so it's very obvious who does what so the next up is the silver team and their first job is to ground the spacecraft Starliner will be powered down but there could be some residual electricity so before anyone can touch it they will ground it and discharge it teams here on the ground reporting that um everything is getting into good configuration for the deorbit burn that's now just about um 6 and 1/2 minutes away uh going on uh with the with what we were saying we also will have the blue team that documenting that documents everything that's going on on at the Landing site these are photographers from both Boeing and NASA who have situational awareness cameras and again here's a a current view of those teams all um ready to deploy at Landing yeah that's the holding site that we were mentioning and then of course you can see um the mountains there in the background in this black and white View and the Green Team hooks up the HVAC trailers to Starliner to get cooling on it but their first job is to put up an Environ enironmental enclosure on the spacecraft and that enclosure looks a lot like a big inflatable it wraps around the vehicle to get cool air around it and make sure the critical systems don't overheat then the red team opens the hatch that is mostly uh Boeing fire rescue they will back up the mobile access platform to Starliner hatch giving the team access and Starliner will be bringing back more than 900 lb of cargo including a nitrogen oxygen recharge system or what we call noris tank that NASA um will service and refill for future space station needs the teams will unload that cargo before Starliner heads back to Florida just over 5 minutes to go now until tonight's uh 10:17 p.m. central Time deorbit Burn team here on the ground reports that Starliner has gotten into the right attitude uh kind of the right way it's pointing uh for that burn so everything is looking good we're on track for uh landing at 11 p.m. central midnight Eastern about 4 minutes into this Burns sequence Starliner will at the keep out sphere or Kos the keep out sphere is an imaginary 200 M sphere centered on the space station once outside the keep out sphere vehicles must provide a four orbit safe free drift trajectory around 510 p.m. central that automated breakout sequence will be completed and then just 15 minutes later we will be out of the approach ellipsoid the approach ellipsoid is in the same family as the keep out sphere but this time it is an imaginary three-dimensional ellipsoid around the space station Vehicles outside the approach ellipsoid have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory and that means the spacecraft would not cross over that imaginary line for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities once outside the approach ellipsoid joint operations between the Starliner mission control and International Space Station flight control room will conclude and Starliner will be on a path back to Earth a few minutes ago teams completed a final weather briefing to analyze weather predictions for the landing site at wh sand space Harbor in New Mexico and the weather continues to look good to support a landing later today as part of the departure preparations for Starliner Mission managers completed a series of operational and weather checks yesterday 24 hours before undocking NASA analyzed the weather predictions for the landing site and there are several different weather criteria that must be met including winds at the selected Landing site must be approximately 13 mph or 12 knots or less when uncrewed and ground temperatures must be warmer than 15° Fahrenheit and the cloud ceiling must be at least 1,000 ft one nautical mile of visibility is also required and the area must be clear of precipitation thunderstorms and lightning within an approximately 22 M radius a final weather check will also take place before the spacecraft de orbit burn which is currently scheduled for 10:17 p.m. central 11:17 p.m. Eastern and following the weather briefing the navigation and docking lights on Starliner were turned on the Lars were confirmed to operate and the r cards were enabled for departure the Lars or laser detection and ranging lasers create a 3D picture of the international space station for Starliner computers to help the spacecraft guide itself around the ISS when it's flying close to the station the ladar system was developed and tested in orbit aboard the space shuttle as they docked with ISS the r cards or remote analog interface unit gathers data on the status and health of critical spacecraft systems during All Phases of the mission this allows the important systems information to be stored aboard the spacecraft so Engineers can review it once the spacecraft lands e we're now just just over 6 minutes away from the planned undocking at 50:4 p.m. central as we continue to stand by for Starliner departure from the International Space Station I'll hand it over to NASA's Rob navius for an update from the International Space Station flight control room thanks Anna here in the space station flight control room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston the uh flight control team led by flight director Anthony varia is in the final moments before the expected undocking of uh Starliner from the forward Port of the harmony module on the International Space Station once uh the undocking is complete and Starliner has exited the approach ellipsoid that you heard Lauren describe just a moment or two ago the uh nine crew members on board the station led by Commander alad kononenko will begin their sleep period they're going to be moving into an off-duty period on Saturday the vacancy of the forward Port of Harmony will open up uh that port for the uh beginning of two crew rotations over the next several weeks next Wednesday NASA's Don Pettit and Ros Cosmos cosmonauts Al Alexi of chinin and Ivan Vagner will be launching from the bik and or cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a two orbit Rendevous to reach the International Space Station that will swell the station's population to 12 and uh begin an 11-day Handover with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Kon Yenko and Nikolai Chu who will be departing the station on September 23rd a day later if everything goes as planned NASA NASA's uh Nick hag and Ros cosmos's Cosmonaut alexand uh Alexander gorbin off will be launching from the Cape Canaveral space force station on the SpaceX crew Dragon Freedom uh they will uh be a two-man crew to reach the International Space Station and provide the orbital Uber if you will for Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams to come home on next February with Wilmore and Williams completing what is expected to be about a 262 day Mission meanwhile the crew8 crew Matt Dominic Mike Barrett Janette EPs and Alexander greenin are in the final weeks of their mission on board the station they are planning to depart after a 5-day Handover with hag and gorinov that Handover will uh lead the way for a departure on or around October 1st the crew8 crew will then be coming home to bring the station back to its complement of seven crew members so with that we're about uh 3 and a half minutes away from the planned undocking of Starliner we'll be watching carefully it will take about 212 minutes from undocking for Starliner to exit the approach ellipsoid that you heard Lauren describe a moment ago that's that 2 and 1/2 Mile Long by 1.2 M wide Corridor if you will the neighborhood of the International Space Station so we'll be following along as Starliner begins its journey home and a landing at midnight eastern time at the we sand space Harbor in New Mexico with that we'll turn it back to you Anna in the Starliner control room station Houston Space ground 2 for Starliner undock status go ahead ISS and Starliner flight control teams remain go for an ontime undock at 2204 please reform 1 decimal 106 crew cst1 100 approach and departure monitoring steps 2 decimal 2 and 2 decimal 3 verbally call Houston when physical step is confirmed be advised that NDS hook Motors are driving space to space Cal may be ready is say crew copies ready for undu monitoring thank you Rob and we just heard some conversation between the crew on the International Space Station and the teams here and the Starliner Mission Control confirming that we are continuing to be go for an undock in just under 2 minutes from now at 5:04 p.m. e Central 6:04 p.m. Eastern we are standing by for the command of the undock ATP or authority to proceed once the authority to proceed is issued for undocking the NDS or NASA docking system hooks will begin to open and there are 12 hooks that seal the surfaces between the NDS and the ISS International docking adapter Ida once all 12 hooks are open Springs on Starliner docking ring will push the spacecraft away from the space station and flight director Chloe Maran just asked for quiet in the room as we are approaching one minute out from Starliner undocking and we just heard confirmation that the umbilicals are retracting and hooks are beginning to drive 30 seconds separation confirmed Starliner is now backing away from station and starting its return to Earth Starliner sters will then complete two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting lab the vehicle is now about 2 meters away from the International Space Station at the time of undocking Starliner in the International Space Station we're flying approximately 260 statute miles over Central China Starliner will be beginning a breakout burn soon which will take the spacecraft forward and above station during this burn sequence Starliner thrusters will perform a series of 12 short firings the entire sequence takes about 5 minutes to complete and allows Starliner to quickly break out to outside the approach ellipsoid or AE and about 4 minutes into the burn sequence Starliner will exit the keep out sphere or the Kos you can see those thrusters firing there on the left of your screen as Starliner backs away from space station and we are now just at 35 M away from the International Space Station we saw a good first burn ISS ISS ters enabled confirmation all 27 Jets have fired Houston copy ISS thrusters enabled and you're seeing the light show there on your screen and the first three of the 12 firings have completed and there's about a 100 second pause until the fourth burn Starliner is about 60 M away and fight controllers are reporting good attitude and good control we are standing by for the fourth of the 12 Burns in the series of firings as part of the breakout burn as a reminder the entire sequence will take about 5 minutes to complete about 4 minutes into the sequence Starliner will cross what is known as the appro or the keep out sphere the keep out sphere is an imaginary 200 met sphere centered on the space station we are 15 seconds away from the fourth burn in the series of 12 and you just saw burn four which just completed we're hearing good burn and the fifth burn and that sequence of 12 just completed and it was a good burn the sixth burn in the series of 12 was just completed and it was a good burn we have we are halfway through the series of 12 six more to go you might be able to see some of those lights on the front of Starliner a red and a green and a white those indicate the different sides of Starliner and they're used by the ISS crew to watch Starliner move away from the ISS along the undocking axis and we just heard good confirmation of both Burns seven and eight completed Starliner undocked approximately 5 minutes ago and has just a handful of short firings left in its breakouts breakout burn and it is now about 150 M away from the International Space Station and we heard confirmation of a good burn n three more to go burn 10 good burn we have one more burn to go but they have confirmed that Starliner has crossed the keep out sphere or the Kos which is an imaginary 200 met sphere centered on the International Space Station that helps flight controllers here on the ground monitor the arrival and departure of visiting Vehicles station Houston Space to ground 2 Starliner has exited the KE out sphere she's exited the key here a reminder this automated breakout sequence was chosen to use Starliner forward thrusters which have remained nominal during this flight and we heard confirmation that all 12 Burns in this series of breakout burn firings have completed and they were all good Burns Starliner has crossed the keep out sphere so the next milestone for Starliner departure will be crossing the approach ellipsoid or AE the AE is another invisible shape monitored by the flight control team measuring 4 km x 2 km x 2 km Starliner is scheduled to cross the approach ellipsoid in about 10 minutes Vehicles outside the AE have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach ellipsoid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities once outside the approach ellipsoid joint operations between Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room will conclude and Starliner will be on a path back to Earth okay we're now taking a look from the Vesta system which stands for vision-based Electro Optical sensor tracking assembly it's a bit of a mouthful so we like to call it Vesta and this is a look from Starliner back at the International Space Station the system is really the eyes of Starliner it's able to pick up on features on the outside of station like handrails and reflectors you can see some of that on your screen there in the outline and it's the way to assess Starliner position and attitude it also gives the ground teams a very accurate look at Starliner location relative to the station so earlier we were taking a look from the station back at Starliner now we're looking from Starliner back at station we're just under 10 minutes away from the AE exit so in the meantime we will check back in with NASA's Rob navius in the internationala space station flight control room Rob thank you guys um flight Dynamics has reported that Starliner is on a perfect trajectory backing away from the International Space Station and opening uh a rate of about 13 12 statued miles per rev at the time of the deorbit burn at uh 1017 and 13 seconds p.m. central time later this evening the uh vehicle will be about 56 statued miles away from the International Space Station that deorbit burn by the way will be a 59 second burn to slow Starliner down by 1299 m/ second a fourx burn omx the acronym for the orbital maneuvering and attitude control system uh thrusters and jets on the Starliner spacecraft that will enable Starliner to begin to drop out of orbit for its intended Southwest to Northeast trajectory across the Pacific Ocean across Baja California and heading towards its landing at the wh sand space Harbor in New Mexico with the forward Port of Harmony now vacant that Drome in Kazakhstan Don peted of NASA and Ros Cosmos cosmonauts Alexi of chinin and Ivan Vagner and their backups are in the final stages of their preparations for launch next Wednesday their soyu 2.1a booster and the soyu ms26 spacecraft that they will ride to orbit uh they that vehicle will roll out to the Launchpad in bik and or on Sunday and then final preparations will lead them to a launch next Wednesday at 11:23 a.m. Central Time heading for a two orbit 3-hour 10-minute journey to dock to the International Space Station's rosette module now that forward port on Harmony that was just vacated by Starliner departure will be the Port of Call for NASA astronaut Nick ha and Ros Cosmos Cosmonaut Alexander gorbin off and their launch no earlier than September 24th on the SpaceX at the Cape Canaveral space force station that will be about a 30-hour transit for those uh two crew members to reach the International Space Station and the automated docking to the forward Port of Harmony ultimately he gorbin off Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams will do a relocation of the uh SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the forward Port of Harmony to the Zenith Port of Harmony opening up that forward port for the arrival of the next SpaceX cargo ship SpaceX 31 that's scheduled for launch in October so a lot of activities uh lying ahead for the space station crew the uh crew aboard the International Space Station soon will begin its sleep period and an off Duty day on Saturday while the activity shifts over to the white flight control room down the hall as they are in a shift hand over right now uh flight director Rick henling will be taking over shortly to supervise entry and Landing operations and uh the team over there will be monitoring the progress of Starliner as it moves to its deorbit position about 56 statued miles away from the International Space Station with that we'll turn it back to the white ficker and Anna and Lauren thank you rob Starliner is now about 750 m away from the International Space Station as it continues to make its way to the approach ellipsoid exit again that approach ellipsoid exit is targeted for 5:25 and 302s p.m. central Time 6:25 and 302s p.m. eastern time and everything continues to proceed as planned with star 's departure and return back to Earth and you're looking live at Starliner in free drift Engineers are telling us that the breakout Burns all went well thrusters are all looking good everything is nominal as we continue up and around space station and head back to Earth again Starliner and just a short while ago from the International Space Station at 5:4 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern as the space station and Starliner were flying approximately 260 statute miles over Central China and shortly after that physical separation starliners thrusters completed two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed and help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory as part of the separation Burns and Then star Starliner began the breakout burn which was a ser series of 12 short firings which allowed the spacecraft to quickly move outside um the keep out sphere and it is now approaching the um approach ellipsoid exit and once Starliner is outside of the approach ellipsoid The Joint operations between teams here and the Starliner mission control and the International Space Station flight control room across the hall will end and Starliner will be back on its path to Earth and we are about 6 minutes away from that approach ellipsoid exit and Starliner is now about 900 M away from the International Space Station traveling at a rate of 1.2 m/s that dot in the center of your screen is Starliner looking from space station e we are now about 5 minutes away from the approach ellipsoid exit Starliner undocked from the International Space Station about 16 minutes ago at 5:04 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern Starliner is now just over a th000 meters away from the International Space Station after Starliner crosses the approach ellipsoid the next milestones for the vehicle will be its entry cover closure and that is planned for about 6:42 p.m. central 7:42 p.m. Eastern and then there will be some checkouts of the omac thrusters at 7:05 p.m. central 8:05 p.m. Eastern and then after that we get into the urry and Landing coverage and the go noo for the deorbit burn will be at approximately 9:57 p.m. central 10:57 p.m. Eastern following with the deorbit burn about 20 minutes later at 10:17 p.m. central 11:17 p.m. Eastern again seeing good views of starliners leaving the International Space Station it's that distant dot on your screen the vehicle is now about 1,120 M away from the International Space Station and we just heard confirmation that Starliner is out of the approach ellip swich the approach ellipsoid is a imaginary three-dimensional ellipsoid around the space station and V Vehicles outside of the approach ellipsoid have to be on what we call a 24-hour safe free drift trajectory which means the spacecraft would not cross into the approach ellipsoid for at least 24 hours even if it lost all maneuvering capabilities now that Starliner is outside of the approach ellipsoid joint operations between the Starliner mission control and International Space Station fight control room will conclude and Starliner is is now on a path back to Earth so once again Starliner undocked from the International Space Station at 504 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern as the space station was flying 260 statute miles over Central China shortly after physical separation starliners thrusters completed two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory Starliner then began the breakout burn and St liner smaller Jets performed a series of 12 short Burns to allow the spacecraft to quickly move outside the approach ellipsoid Starliner again crossed the approach ellipsoid moments ago and is now on its journey home the next milestones for Starline are ahead of its deorbit burn targeted for 10:17 p.m. include crossing the entry cover closing the entry cover and conducting checkouts of the omx just 7 15 minutes to go until Landing e less than a minute now until we begin uh entry interface again about 2 minutes after entry interface starts we'll begin seeing the heating uh really get intense and we'll go into a 4 and a half minute blackout e team here in the ground reporting entry interface has begun they're seeing good range seeing another view from the uh Landing site or the the team's uh getting ready to move out to the land side here a little better idea from this view of exactly how dark it is out there with all the lights of the vehicle shining a minute and a half until we move into the blackout period for Starliner and 14 and 1 12 minutes until we land in White Sands New Mexico the star lanter enters Earth's atmosphere at 17 times the speed of sound which could create a Sonic Boom for folks living in the area it will then be slowed down by parachutes to a speed very similar to what you might experience while going down an elevator inside a high-rise building the vehicle then comes to a safe comfortable stop at Landing 30 seconds now until the uh blackout period begin due to the compression of friction and friction of the air the molecules generate a very hot plasma that uh causes the red orange glow you often see appear in postflight imagery on Min spacecraft although we won't get to see that tonight uh it will happen causes an expected communication Dropout this one will last 4 and A2 minutes as the vehicle uh goes through a time when plasma interferes with a satellite signal we expect that blank out to end around 10:52 p.m. central this is also the time that I mentioned earlier where a Starliner in the past two flights has gotten that black um Mark along the sides of it and that just really proves to our team that the ablative heat shield or the ablative material um around Starliner is is doing its job and the heat shield is pushing that plasma away it's blackout time again uh last about 4 and A2 minutes we've got uh about 3 and a half left of it after that uh the Milestones will'll be watching for include uh Ford heat shield jettison at 1056 when Starliner is about 4.3 Mi above the Earth very soon after that uh almost immediately drug shoots deploy those uh give the give a little bit of an initial slowdown to the vehicle before the really um large main parachutes deploy that happens when the Starliner is about 2 and 1/2 miles above the Earth e that's the this uh is a live view from the International Space Station where we're able to get a view of uh Starliner track as it comes in we are now less than 10 minutes away from landing at the White Sands space Harbor scheduled for uh 10 or 11:00 p.m. central also uh getting reports that the w57 is also able to see Starliner now as it begins coming in for its uh for its Landing we've still got just about a minute left to go before Starliner comes out of its uh blackout period and this is the view from the wb-57 one of a NASA's aircraft that is uh at the uh Landing site has been uh been uh staged and ready to pick a Starliner or pick up the view of Starliner as it comes in and that is what we are seeing now and they're filming the video from about 16,000 ft the bb57 should continue to uh give us a view until the drog parachutes deploy and then we hope to pick it up with the Cessna that is also in the area and flight controllers here in the room are reporting that we are out of that blackout period and everything is looking good Starliner remaining nominal as she returns to Earth again this is a view from the WB 57 Starliner showing a beautiful streak across the sky as she returns to White Sands New Mexico we're about 3 minutes away from the forward heat shield jine that's the next Milestone we're looking for Starliner is currently about 27 miles above the earth and the team at uh White Sands reporting that they have seen it we got a Telly hole from them uh reported uh remotely that means they are seeing Starliner from the ground they're in New Mexico this view is coming from the Cessna that's also in the area picking up uh star now Starliner now from its lower altitude about 6,000 ft above whereas the WB 557 is about 16,000 ft up we are now just uh 6 minutes and 22 seconds away from Landing we should also just be a couple minutes away from the forward heat still jettison which will bring on the drog parachute deploy followed by the main parachutes and the strobe lights on Starliner are now on Starliner is now over the landing site and that strobe light will help the teams actually track Starliner on the ground because it is very dark out there now about 12 mil above uh The Landing site and just 5 minutes away from Landing watching now for for the forward heat shield Jennison that should be coming up uh again making way from for the parachute deployment all right and that action you're seeing on your screen forward heat sheld and drugs out really interesting view of this uh coming down from the wb-57 see those two drug parachutes uh now deployed they slow the uh vehicle down initially until it gets to a a safe uh speed for the enormous main parachutes to to follow about four minutes to go until touchdown now back to A View From the Cessna aircraft in the uh vicinity of the landing site again this is a A View From a little lower than the WB 57 we were seeing the next thing we're going to see here is the three main parachutes come out and everything will happen pretty quickly from that point on after those Mains are out we'll see the uh bottom heat shill that has been protecting uh Starliner through its journey through the atmosphere come off that makes way for the landing airbags to deploy and there's the main parachutes there on your screen we see three out currently reefing and the teams at the uh Landing uh recovery teams report that they heard uh booms as those came out three good Mains fully open there you can see Starliner in a slight tilt so we're going to see the rotation handle move here shortly and it will level out Starliner but three good parachutes looking great just a a little over 2 minutes until the expected Landing time and we heard the rotational handle has been released so you can see that uh tilt evened out next up is the back heat shield jettison and there it goes that again makes way for the airbag inflation nice to see that you can see the airbags deploying there on your screen those airbags are filled with nitrogen as they guide Starliner safely back to the desert floor just a beautiful sight as Starliner makes its way to the Sands of New Mexico and flight controllers confirming six good airbags view still coming to us from the Cessna we've got uh about just about a minute left to go until the expected touchdown be watching for that time for you just about 15 seconds away from expected touchdown you're seeing the ground there in your screen as we get closer touchdown Starliner is back on Earth that Landing coming at 11:01 and 35 seconds Central Time 10:01 and 31 seconds mountain time at wh sand space haror at the US Army's Missile Range in New Mexico our landing and Recovery teams will now wait for clearance before making their way to the spacecraft one of the changes uh required with no crew on board is that the team here in the flight control room will be the ones to uh command the uh parachute uh to be cut away so that uh the wind doesn't pull the capsule along but uh that's no problem for them so uh now with the with Starliner down they can begin working on some of the post Landing to- do items again uh we saw Starliner touchdown at 11:01 p.m. central Time that's uh 1 minute after midnight eastern Time or 10:01 p.m. central at the Landing site in New Mexico This Is A View From the Cessna still watching the drones slowly make their own way down uh those of course are the uh the drug parachutes that uh preceded the main parachutes uh for slowing Starliner down before the the large parachutes opened and really just a Flawless and beautiful Descent of Starliner today we even heard some cheers and clapping in the background