Today’s launch was a monumental moment for the two astronauts heading for space.
But what goes up must come down.
After Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spend eight days aboard the International Space Station, they’ll come home in their Starliner capsule.
The earliest possible landing date is June 14, but the astronauts may stay longer on the station because there is nothing “magical” about that return date, NASA officials said Wednesday.
“We’ve got a prescribed landing date that goes along with this launch date, but I just want to emphasize that nobody should get too excited about that date,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
“We have to have a lot of conditions that are just right before we bring the Starliner home and we’re going to wait till the conditions are right and we’ve accomplished the test objectives before we do that.”
And the vehicle will make its return to Earth unlike any US spacecraft before it.
Rather than splashing down in the ocean, as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and other capsules dating back to NASA’s Mercury Program have done, Starliner is going to hit terra firma.
There are five possible landing sites, generally across the southwestern US: Two in New Mexico, one in Utah, another in Arizona and, finally, one in California.
Why land on land rather than splash down?
Seawater is rough on spacecraft. The salt can corrode components. And then, there’s the sheer hassle of getting ships out to sea to rescue the crew.
“Boeing opted for a design that will touch down on land rather than splashing into the ocean in order to ease parts of the recovery process,” according to the company.
