KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA gave space fans some information on the return of the empty Starliner as many are eyeing the launch date of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission. 

Starliner returns without a crew

During a press conference on Wednesday, NASA officials gave a recap of the return of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. On its first crewed maiden mission, the Starliner christen Calypso encountered issues with helium leaks that impacted the service module’s five aft reaction control system maneuvering thrusters.

(Scroll down to view an interactive timeline of events)

Although NASA officials stated the leaks have not worsened and tests to the thrusters have been successful, there was no way of determining if all the systems would operate as they should during a landing with the crew inside Starliner.

Last week, NASA released plans on how it will return the Starliner without its human crew.

NASA astronauts Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams were sent up in the Calypso in June of this year and while they were expected to stay for about a week on the International Space Station, the ongoing problems forced NASA to change how the pair will return to Earth.

Williams and Wilmore will now hitch a ride in SpaceX’s Dragon space capsule on the Crew-9 mission in February 2025 when it returns home. Originally, Crew-9 was supposed to have four members, but NASA whittled that down to two to make room for Wilmore and Williams. The mission is currently set to launch on Sept. 24.

On Wednesday, NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich explained that on Friday at around 6:04 p.m. ET, the Starliner will undock from the station’s Harmony module and after about a six-hour journey, it will reach the landing zone at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at approximately 12:03 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7.

NASA Johnson Space Center’s International Space Station Manager Dana Weigel said as Starliner undocks from the ISS, there will be a breakout burn that will send the capsule over and away from the station.

Stich added that there should be no issues during undocking that should impact the ISS.

Both NASA and Boeing teams will work together during the undocking and landing of Starliner as they have already been going over simulations of what to expect, said Anthony Vareha, the International Space Station’s flight director.

Five of the Starliner’s aft reaction control system thrusters that were used to maneuver the craft to the ISS failed before docking in June. After a hot-fire test, four of the five were re-selected, leaving the fifth one off. If the thrusters do not fire, springs that are connected between Starliner and the station will unhook and push Starliner away, said Vareha.

The other thrusters on the module will be fired during timed moments to get the capsule in the right attitude as it will return to Earth. The service module will detach itself from the capsule and burn up during re-entry.

While Starliner will not bring its crew home, it will not be returning empty handed as it will return rechargeable oxygen tanks, other materials and the Starliner spacesuits, explained Weigel.

The Starliner spacesuits are not compatible with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. The ISS has one extra Dragon suit that Williams can fit into and during the Crew-9 mission, a spare suit will be sent up for Wilmore.

Once the Starliner has returned to Earth, Stich said teams will go over it and the data collected by onboard instruments, among others, to see what went wrong and what type of improvements can be made.

He said to Spectrum News that the teams have been so focused on returning Starliner and its crew that they have not had the chance to think about the official crewed Boeing Starliner 1 mission, which is set to launch in August 2025.

But he said the teams will determine how to certify the crewed mission.

Retired scientist Ken Kremer with SpaceUpClose.com says it would be too risky to send the astronauts home on a spacecraft after so many problems. 

"I think it’s a good decision, NASA doesn’t want a repeat of Challenger and Columbia, it was a close call. There were arguments on both sides, but in the end they thought why take a chance," he said.

(Spectrum News reporter Greg Pallone contributed to this report. See attached video for more.)

Polaris Dawn launches mission that will see firsts

But before that happens, the FAA reported that SpaceX is expected to launch the Polaris Program’s first Polaris Dawn mission early Friday morning.

However, Polaris Program’s Public Relations Director Sarah Grover told Spectrum News on Tuesday, “… I can tell you that we don’t have a launch date at the present time. The team is monitoring the weather daily and when we have a launch window, we will post on our X account.“

It was supposed to take off twice last week, but a helium leak and weather forced the scrub of the launch.

When it does take off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Cmdr. Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX lead space operations engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis will be conducting a number of firsts, from the furthest planned orbit around Earth to doing the first commercial spacewalk.

All previous spacewalks have been done by space agencies like NASA.

Speaking of the spacewalk, it will be done in the new SpaceX spacesuit, also known as an extravehicular activity (EVA).

Poteet spoke with Spectrum News about what the spacesuits will be like and shared more about the mission.