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00:00Touchdown. Starliner is back on Earth.
00:04Without the astronauts, it was meant to be carrying back to Earth. Boeing's Starliner
00:08spacecraft touched down in a New Mexico desert after leaving the International Space Station
00:13around six hours earlier.
00:16Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams rode to the ISS in Starliner in June for what was meant
00:21to be an eight-day mission.
00:23But the capsule, which has been plagued with technical issues, was deemed too risky to
00:27bring them home.
00:29Instead, they'll be returning in a SpaceX Crew Dragon in February next year, a change
00:35of plans that the astronauts have taken in their stride, according to the manager of
00:39the ISS.
00:40Since Butch and Sonny have been on board and they were extended, they already started participating
00:45and really helping us out on board station. They've done over 42 experiments, may actually
00:51be more than that by now, that was when I checked last week, they had over 100 hours
00:55between the two of them helping us on board with science and research. They are doing
01:01the normal exercise regiments.
01:05The blast-off in June marked the first test flight for Starliner. The problems with the
01:09spacecraft came as another knock for Boeing, its reputation already marred by recent in-flight
01:14incidents and two deadly accidents several years ago.
01:18A smooth landing will therefore be welcomed by the company, as well as NASA, which is
01:23determined to get the capsule certified in the future.
01:27Many things on the vehicle are working really well. What we really need to go do is look
01:31at the things that didn't perform the way we expected, like I talked about the helium
01:35leaks, can we go fix those leaks, test those on the ground and have confidence to move
01:39forward and fly again? And the same thing with the thrusters.
01:43While this was Boeing's first attempt at a crewed mission, rival company SpaceX has sent
01:47nine crewed flights to space for NASA.