---
title: "Starliner Suffers New Problems While Coming Back to Earth"
description: "  Late Friday night, NASA's plagued Starliner spacecraft finally made it back to the ground. The capsule landed in the New Mexico desert after spending just over three months in space. But thanks to technical issues worrying NASA officials, it left behind the agency's two stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, bookending a disastrous […]"
date: "2024-09-09"
modified: "2024-09-09"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/starliner-new-problems-return-earth"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "boeing"
  - "international space station"
  - "NASA"
  - "starliner"
  - "the digest"
---

# Starliner Suffers New Problems While Coming Back to Earth

![Late Friday night, NASA's plagued Starliner spacecraft finally made it back to the ground. A new thruster failed.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/starliner-new-problems-return-earth-1.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Boeing / Futurism\</em\>*

## Homeward Bound

On Saturday morning, NASA's plagued Starliner spacecraft finally [made it back to the ground](<https://spacenews.com/starliner-returns-to-earth-uncrewed/>).

The capsule landed in the New Mexico desert after spending just over three months in space. But thanks to technical issues worrying NASA officials, it left behind the agency's two stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, bookending a [disastrous first crewed flight attempt](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-admits-tension-boeing-starliner>).

The pair will have to wait for their ride back, on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, until February.

Signals on the capsule's return were mixed. On the one hand, according to NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich, it pulled off a "bullseye landing." On the other, the agency admitted that a [new thruster had failed during its descent](<https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/leaving-behind-its-crew-starliner-departs-space-station-and-returns-to-earth/>). The capsule also experienced a temporary blackout of Starliner's guidance system during reentry.

It's an awkward situation for the space agency: would Starliner have been able to ferry NASA's missing crew members in the end?

"I think we made the right decision not to have Butch and Suni on board," Stich told reporters on Saturday. "All of us feel happy about the successful landing. But then there’s a piece of us, all of us, that we wish it would have been the way we had planned it."

https://twitter.com/Cmdr\_Hadfield/status/1832407699687907825

## Double Down

While approaching the International Space Station in early June, five of Starliner's 28 control thrusters gave up, forcing Wilmore and Williams to take over manual control.

Subsequent investigations concluded that the thrusters had overheated, [causing a Teflon "poppet" seal to expand](<https://futurism.com/nasa-engineers-disturbed-tested-starliner-thrusters>) and restrict the flow of the oxidizer.

Several [helium leaks](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-starliner-stuck-space-station-more-leaks>) added to Boeing's growing headache at the time, worrying NASA officials.

The capsule didn't fare much better following undocking procedures on Friday. One of its 12 control jets on the crew module — a different set unrelated to the other malfunctioning service module thrusters — failed to ignite. And a glitch caused the spacecraft's navigation system to go down briefly during reentry as well.

It's still unclear whether Boeing will try to launch its plagued Starliner again. Analysts suggest the aerospace giant [may dump the entire project](<https://futurism.com/starliner-failure-embarrassment-boeing>), which has already lost the company well over a billion dollars, instead.

"It’s unclear if or when the company will have another opportunity to bring astronauts to space," Bank of America aerospace and defense analyst Ron Epstein [told the *New York Times*](<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/07/business/boeing-starliner-nasa-spacex.html>). "We would not be surprised if Boeing were to divest the manned spaceflight business."

**More on Starliner:** *[Retired NASA Engineer Warns Boeing's Starliner Could Lose Control During Return and Crash in Populated Area](<https://futurism.com/former-nasa-engineer-warns-starliner-crash>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)