Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, months after its original departure date and without the two astronauts it carried when it launched in early June.
Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a Nasa live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.
The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere around 11pm ET at orbital speeds of roughly 27,400km/h (17,025mph). About 45 minutes later, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated a set of airbags moments before touching down at the White Sands Space Harbor, an arid desert in New Mexico.
I think they’d prefer going home. The mission they came up for is long done, they may have important events in their life or their family’s lives scheduled for after the planned return, and staying up for months increases the chances of long term damage to their bodies.
I imagine they’re pretty bored by now.
They certainly won’t be bored. Astronauts time on the ISS is a precious resource, and work will have been found for them even if they weren’t expected to be there
I keep saying the same thing and get a bunch of people replying things like, “how do you know they want to see their kids?”
To be fair, I’ve met some absent parents that genuinely don’t care if they see their kids again, and unfortnately it is possible for someone like that to be capable of being an astronaut.
