Boeing’s Starliner capsule undocked from the International Space Station Friday evening and headed back to New Mexico without any crew.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain behind at the space station until February. They are expected to return to Earth with a SpaceX crew that will likely launch for the ISS later this month with two empty seats on what NASA jokingly called an “orbital Uber” Friday.
Sending the astronauts back on Starliner was determined to be too risky by NASA because the capsule has struggled with thruster troubles and helium leaks. Wilmore and Williams were originally expected to leave the ISS in June, just a week after launch, making an eight-day mission more than an eight-month ordeal.
After thruster tests of the capsule, Boeing believed Williams and Wilmore could safely ride back in the capsule but was overridden by NASA.
