LIVE: Boeing Starliner returns to Earth without NASA astronauts

[Music] welcome to the Starliner Mission Control in Houston where teams are preparing for the autonomous undocking and departure of the uncrewed Boeing Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station undocking today is currently planned for 5:4 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern I'm Anna Schneider with NASA Communications and joining me today in Starliner Michigan control is Lauren Briny from Boeing Communications across the hall in the International Space Station flight control room we also have NASA Rob navius in preparation for today's undocking activities the teams here in Starliner mission control and the flight control room flight control team in the International Space Station flight control room recently completed the go noo Poll for starliners undocking the teams all pulled go to proceed with undocking and the team here in Starliner mission control is being led by flight director Chloe Marin today's undocking will set Starliner on its path home for landing at wh sand space Harbor in New Mexico targeting approximately 11:00 p.m. central Friday September 6th midnight Eastern on Saturday NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and sunny Williams flew to the International Space Station in June as part of NASA's Boeing crew flight test lifting off a top a United launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from span space launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral space for station in Florida on June 5th the the Starliner spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on June 6th during the June 6th rendevu NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control system or RCS thrusters as Starliner approached the station since then engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work including reviewing a collection of data conducting flight and ground testing hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts and developing various return contingency plans the uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence did not meet the agency's safety and performance requirements for human space flight thus prompting the NASA decision to return Boeing Starliner spacecraft to Earth without astronauts Butch Willmore and sunny Williams aboard the uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue Gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home while also not accepting more risk than is necessary for its crew Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71 and 72 crew through February of 2025 they will then fly home aboard a dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency SpaceX crew 9 mission NASA astronaut Nick ha and Ross Cosmos Cosmonaut Alexander goranov as part of NASA's commercial crew program this is Boeing's second flight to the International Space Station and third Starliner flight test overall following a second orbital flight test in May of 2022 yesterday the hatches were closed between Starliner and the International Space Station there are three hatches that separate the inside of Starliner from the orbiting laboratory the Starliner hatch and the AP pass hatch and no two forward hatch on the station side following hatch closure teams work through steps to depressurize the vestibule which is the area between the station hatch and Starliner hatch that were exposed to the vacuum of space prior to docking shortly after the go no go poll earlier today where the joint teams here in the Starliner Mission Control and the International Space Station Mission Control P go for undocking NASA astronaut Sunny Williams called down to the flight control team on Space to ground to share some words with the team before star liner's departure later today we'll go ahead and Replay that exch exchange for you now station Houston Space to ground two for Starliner undock status go ahead we're with you hey siging both the Starliner and ISS flight control team have pulled go for undock at this time the expected undock time is 2204 okay copy 2204 hey you know we just looking at the flight control roster and like wow it is the allstar team you guys it is the time to bring Calypso home you have got this where we have your backs and you've got this bring her back to Earth good luck sunny and Butch this is Chloe just on behalf of the entire Mo team and I know the other flight control teams around the building we thank you for your endless Support over the years we've enjoyed every training event and every meeting we remember every setback and every Revelation with you the teams on the ground have worked countless hours over the last few weeks months and for a group of us years to bring Calypso back and we're ready to do that today we wish you the best of luck in your increment and sunny I will make sure the right people have your Coming Home song ready to play on Space the ground when it's time for you guys to come home good luck and thank you wonderful comments uh flight we appreciate that and we agree many years of uh great enjoyment um simming together uh playing together and being involved with each other's lives and it's it's been special um bring it home Cy thank you and have a good evening we are now just over 13 minutes away from today's planned and docking as we continue to approach that undocking you can see the team here and the Starliner Mission Control team working um in t with the ISS flight control room across the hallway just before we came on the air here the teams opened up the helium manifold to check Starliner leak rate everything looks good the teams say the rate remains steady and we have plenty of margin for the ex uh rest of the flight so let's talk a little bit about what is coming up at around 50:2 p.m. central 602 Eastern we are going to be listening for the authority to proceed for undocking after the ATP or authority to proceed is issued for undocking the hooks on the NASA docking system will begin to open there are 12 hooks that seal the surfaces between the docking system and the ISS International docking adapter or the Ida once all of those hooks are open Springs on starliners docking ring will push the spacecraft away from the space station so again we're expecting that undocking at 5 50:4 p.m. central 6:04 Eastern and then just a few seconds later at about 5 m out our first separation burn starliners thrusters will complete two short firings to gradually increase the separation speed to help the spacecraft carefully move away from the orbiting laboratory the command given to Starliner will be to back straight away to the 200 meter mark But then a few seconds later a second command will be given before it gets too far to change that path and head up higher than station these 12 pre-planned Burns will be performed with starliners 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 Starliner thrusters will perform a series of 12 short firings this entire sequence will take about 5 minutes to complete and will allow St liner to quickly break out to 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 sphere centered on the space station once outside the keep out sphere vehicles must provide a four orbit safe free drift trajectory around 5:10 p.m. central that automated breakout sequence will be completed and then just 15 minutes later we will be out of the the approach ellipsoid the approach ellipsoid is in the same family as the keep out sphere but this time it is an imaginary threedimensional 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 Miss 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 White 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° fah 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 Radars 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 latar 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 six 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 Nas'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 describ just a moment or two ago the uh nine crew members on board the station led by Commander ala kenko will begin their sleep period they're going to be moving into 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 bikin or cosmodrome 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 Conan 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's Cosmonaut alexand uh 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 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 handle over with he and gorbin off 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 compliment 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 21 1/2 minutes from undocking for Starliner to exit the approach ellipsoid that you heard lawen 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 to ground 2 for Starliner undock status go ahead ISS and Starliner flight control teams remain go for an ontime undock at 2204 please reform one decimal 106 crew CST 100 approach and departure monitoring steps 2 decimal 2 and 2 decimal 3 verbally call Houston when physical steps is confirmed be advised that NDS hook Motors are driving space to space Cal may be ready say 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 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 surface is 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 Khloe 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 dry live 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 starliners 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 is 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 met sphere centered on the space station we are 15 seconds away from the fourth burn in the series 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 complet Ed 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 watch darer 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 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 bout 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 in 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 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 KE out sphere so the next milestone for Star liner's departure will be crossing the approach ellipsoid or AE the AE is another their 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 Miss 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 Starliner position and attitude it also gives the ground teams a very accurate look at star liner's 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 aexit 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 on a perfect trajectory backing away from the International Space Station and opening uh a rate of about 13 a 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 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 white sand space Harbor in New Mexico with the forward Port of Harmony now vacant that sets the stage as I mentioned a few minutes ago for the start of a couple of crew rotations that are coming coming up down at the bikin or Cosmo Drome in Kazakhstan Don peted of NASA and Ros Cosmos 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 bikon or on Sunday and then final preparations will lead them to will 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 gorinov and their launch no earlier than September 24th on the SpaceX Dragon Freedom space craft off of launch complex 40 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 open wining 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 Handover right now uh flight director Rick hen fling 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 me me 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 starliners 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 5:04 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 starler 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/ second that dot in the center of your screen is Starliner looking from space station e we are now about 5 minutes away way from the approach ellipsoid exit Starliner undocked from the International Space Station about 16 minutes ago at 54 p.m. central 6:04 p.m. Eastern Starliner is now just over 1,000 meters away from the International Space Station after Starliner crosses the approach ellipsoid the next milestones for the vehicle will be 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 foll ING 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 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 5:04 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 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 to for Starliner status Calypso has exited the approach 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 we'll be turned down the r copies thanks spacecraft communic here in 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 where it's deorbit burn at 1017 and 13 seconds p.m. this evening once again that'll be a 59c burn of the four orbital maneuvering and attitude control system uh Jets on the Starliner spacecraft to slow Starliner Down By 129.99 Night Eastern Time 11:00 p.m. central Time give or take a few seconds at the wh 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 Cosmo droman in Kazakhstan on Wednesday of NASA's Don Pettit and Ros Cosmos 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 starlander 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 [Music]