After a summer of turmoil, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is finally home. The capsule undocked from the International Space Station without astronauts onboard on Friday at 6:04 p.m. Its smooth journey back suggests that the two NASA astronauts it carried to the space station could probably have flown home safely on the spacecraft. But the Starliner then remained parked at the space station for months as engineers on the ground assessed how to safely bring it back to Earth. Wilmore and Williams will remain on the space station into the new year then fly back in February on a SpaceX capsule.

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Persons: Starliner, ” Joel Montalbano, NASA Starliner, Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Wilmore, Williams, you’ve, ” Williams, “, ”, Boeing’s Organizations: International, NASA, Boeing, SpaceX, Space Center Locations: New, China, Houston