Boeing’s Starliner crew spacecraft nails desert landing, a first for a U.S.-made, human-rated capsule
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/22/boeings-starliner-crew-spacecraft-nails-desert-landing-a-first-for-a-u-s-made-human-rated-capsule/
The Boeing Starliner CST-100 spacecraft, which will be one of the first new human-rated spacecraft to carry astronauts from the U.S. to space, has successfully returned from orbit and landed at its target landing site in White Sands, New Mexico. The capsule touched down at 7:58 AM EST, right on time for the mission’s planned schedule as detailed at a news conference on Saturday.
Starliner didn’t have anyone on board, but was instead on its first test flight intended to launch, dock with the International Space Station and then return to Earth. The uncrewed flight didn’t go exactly as planned, however – that docking with the ISS never happened because of an error with the mission timer on board the spacecraft, which caused the Starliner to burn too much fuel during an early orbital maneuver and subsequently forced Boeing and NASA to change the mission parameters.