Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed safely in the White Sands spaceport, New Mexico, at 6:49 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 25, completing the Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) as part of NASA’s commercial crew program.
Starliner settled carefully on his airbags after a parachute landing, which helped prepare the stage for future crew landings. The landing was followed by the burning of an orbital exit at 18:05 EDT, the separation of the spacecraft’s service module and the successful deployment of its three main parachutes and six airbags.
The six-day flight served as an end-to-end test of the system’s capabilities, demonstrating its ability to launch, jump into the International Space Station, re-enter Earth orbit and land safely. The success of OFT-2 brings the nation one step closer to having two unique human transport systems to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station from the United States.
The summer test began on Thursday, May 19, when Starliner launched the ULA Atlas V rocket from the Space Launch Complex-41 at the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida. Starliner docked at the orbital laboratory on Friday, May 20, and the space station crew opened the Starliner hatch on Saturday, May 21. The spacecraft returned home with more than 600 pounds of cargo.
After NASA and Boeing review the data from this test flight, the teams will continue their plans for Starliner and its next mission, Crew Flight Test to the space station.
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