Boeing Starliner has completed its lonely return to Earth

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully completed its uncrewed flight back to Earth, NASA announced overnight. The return ended the Starliner's most recent flight test months later than intended and leaves its original crew, NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams, aboard the International Space Station until next year.

The Starliner touched down right on time at 12:01 AM ET at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, according to NASA. Officials at the agency hailed its successful descent:

"I am extremely proud of the work our collective team put into this entire flight test, and we are pleased to see Starliner's safe return," said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft uncrewed, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible."

"This was an important test flight for NASA in setting us up for future missions on the Starliner system," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program said in NASA's release.

The Starliner originally launched despite helium leaks that NASA found to be within acceptible limits. NASA then delayed the return flight after finding more leaks and issues with Starliner's reaction control thrusters. Astronauts Wilmore and Williams are expected to return aboard a SpaceX dragon capsule when NASA's Crew-9 mission ends in early 2025.