Boeing Starliner’s Future Is Unclear, Even After Safe Landing

The Starliner has landed.

Boeing’s troubled spacecraft has finally come home, but the two NASA astronauts who traveled in it to the International Space Station in June remain in orbit.

Because of problems with Starliner’s propulsion system during its approach to the space station in June, NASA officials decided not to put the astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, on Starliner for the return trip. They will spend an additional five months on the space station as part of the crew before coming back to Earth around February in a spacecraft built and managed by SpaceX.

For the most part, the undocking and atmospheric re-entry of Starliner proceeded smoothly. So did the capsule’s landing under parachutes at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday (10:01 p.m. Friday local time). That supported the earlier assertions of Boeing officials that the company’s vehicle was safe for the astronauts.

“It would have been a safe, successful landing with the crew on board, had we have had Butch and Suni on board,” Steve Stich, manager of the commercial crew program at NASA, said during a news conference early Saturday morning after the landing.

But the difficulties during the mission and the extended stay in orbit for the two astronauts have embarrassed Boeing, and there could be uncertainty how much the company is willing to continue to invest in the Starliner program.