The spacecraft successfully launched and delivered NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station in June. But what seemed like an eight-day jaunt turned into months of questions surrounding Starliner’s ability to return the crew safely to Earth. NASAAfter nearly three months, the Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without the two test pilots after undocking from the space station Friday night and parachuting into the New Mexico desert early Saturday. Starliner is the first US-made capsule to parachute to a ground landing, rather than splashing into the ocean. It remains to be seen how and when Starliner will be certified to carry astronauts regularly to space.

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Persons: Boeing’s, —, Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, jaunt, Starliner, Williams, “, Butch, Suni, ”, Steve Stich, mako, Guillermo López, Wells, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Radian Aerospace, NASA, International Space Station, Boeing, Starliner, European Union, Spanish, NSF, Cornell University, CNN Space, Science Locations: Seattle, New Mexico, Cod, Massachusetts, Zamora, Philippines, Luzon, Scotland