WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After spending nearly three weeks in the International Space Station as part of NASA's crewed test flight, two U.S. astronauts will return to earth on June 25.
NASA said on Tuesday that teams from the U.S. space agency and Boeing are targeting no earlier than 10:10 p.m. ET Tuesday for the undocking of the Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the first crew to fly aboard Starliner, would land at about 4:51 a.m. ET on June 26, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
Following undocking and the deorbit burn, Starliner will descend under parachutes to land in the desert grounds of White Sands. Airbags attached to the bottom of Starliner will soften the spacecraft's touchdown. The landing will mark the first time an American capsule has touched down on land with astronauts aboard. A team of NASA and Boeing specialists will retrieve the crew soon after landing.
NASA's test flight to send its astronauts aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station successfully completed its first stage on June 6 when Wilmore and Williams docked the Starliner to the space station's forward port.
The former Navy test pilots have been testing spacecraft systems and performing tasks aboard the orbiting laboratory since then.
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