WASHINGTON: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft landed uncrewed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, capping a three-month test mission hobbled by technical issues that forced the astronauts it had flown to the International Space Station to remain there until next year.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who became the first crew to fly Starliner in June, remained on the ISS as Starliner autonomously undocked at 6:04 p.m. ET (2204 GMT) on Friday, beginning a six-hour trek to Earth using maneuvering thrusters that NASA last month deemed too risky for a crew.
Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a NASA live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission.
The spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere at around 11 p.m. ET at orbital speeds of roughly 17,000 miles (27,400 km) per hour. About 45 minutes later, it deployed a series of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated a set of airbags moments before touching down at the White Sands Space Harbor, an arid desert in New Mexico.
Though the mission was intended to be a final test flight before NASA certifies Starliner for routine missions, the agency’s decision last month to keep astronauts off the capsule over safety concerns threw the spacecraft’s certification path into uncertainty, despite the clean return Boeing executed.
Wilmore and Williams, stocked with extra food and supplies on the ISS, will return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle in February 2025. What was initially supposed to be an eight-day test has turned into an eight-month mission for the crew.
The ISS, a football field-sized science lab some 250 miles (402 km) in space, has seven other astronauts on board who arrived at different times on other spacecraft, including a Russian Soyuz capsule. Wilmore and Williams are expected to continue doing science experiments with their crewmates.
Five of Starliner’s 28 maneuvering thrusters failed with Wilmore and Williams on board during their approach to the ISS in June, while the same propulsion system sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.
Despite successfully docking on June 6, the failures set off a monthslong investigation by Boeing — with some help from NASA — that has cost the company $125 million, bringing total cost overruns on the Starliner program just above $1.6 billion since 2016, according to a Reuters analysis of securities filings.
Boeing’s Starliner woes have persisted since the spacecraft failed a 2019 test trip to the ISS without a crew. Starliner did a re-do mission in 2022 and largely succeeded, though some of its thrusters malfunctioned.
The aerospace giant’s Starliner woes represent the latest struggle that call into question Boeing’s future in space, a domain it had dominated for decades until Elon Musk’s SpaceX began offering cheaper launches for satellites and astronauts and reshaped the way NASA works with private cFompanies.
Boeing will recover the Starliner capsule after its touchdown and continue its investigation into why the thrusters failed in space.
But the section that housed Starliner’s thrusters — the “service module” trunk that provides in-space maneuvering capabilities — detached from the capsule as designed just before it plunged into Earth’s atmosphere.
The service module bearing the faulty thrusters burned up in the atmosphere as planned, meaning Boeing will rely on simulated tests to figure out what went wrong with the hardware in space.
Without astronauts, Boeing’s Starliner returns to Earth
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Without astronauts, Boeing’s Starliner returns to Earth
- NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams to return on SpaceX vehicle in February 2025
- Boeing’s Starliner program faces $1.6 billion in cost overruns since 2016
US House backs Europe, rebukes Trump on foreign policy
- The security strategy openly supports far-right European parties
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers on Wednesday approved a sweeping defense bill bolstering European security — a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump’s mounting threats to downgrade Washington’s ties to traditional allies and NATO.
The bipartisan House of Representatives vote came on the heels of the publication of a White House national security strategy that amounted to a startling attack on Europe — rattling its governments and opening the biggest transatlantic rift in years.
By contrast, the House’s $900 billion Pentagon bill stands out for its pro-Europe orientation and its clampdown on Trump’s authority to reduce troop numbers, move equipment or downgrade NATO-linked missions.
“President Trump and congressional Republicans are restoring American strength, defending our homeland, standing with our allies, and ensuring the United States remains the most powerful and capable military force the world has ever known,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said ahead of the vote.
In his security strategy published last week, Trump lambasted Europe as an over-regulated, censorious continent lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
His administration accuses European nations of taking advantage of American generosity and of failing to take responsibility for their own destiny.
The security strategy openly supports far-right European parties, questioning the continent’s commitment to peace and indicating that its security is no longer a top US priority.
But lawmakers are explicitly moving in the opposite direction — deepening US resources for the Baltic states and hardening NATO’s northeastern flank, in a move that amounts to one of the strongest congressional assertions in years of Europe’s strategic importance.
The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act — which now advances to the Senate — carries a robust $8 billion more than the funding Trump requested in May.
It leans hard into European defense, barring troop levels on the continent from falling below 76,000 for more than 45 days and blocking the removal of major equipment.
Demand for drug-strike videos
The White House has backed the 3,086-page text, despite its misgivings over Europe, as well as a provision forcing the Pentagon to hand over videos of maritime strikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels in Latin American waters.
The footage has become a flashpoint in a transparency dispute between congressional defense and security committees and the military.
To ensure compliance, lawmakers will withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the videos arrive — an unusually personal tactic reflecting frustration over slow document production and the administration’s expanding use of lethal force in drug interdictions.
The NDAA also adds traditional security priorities. It places fresh limits on any reduction of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea, a signal to Seoul amid uncertainty over America’s long-term military commitment in East Asia.
With support from the administration wavering, the bill also doubles down on Ukraine — setting aside $400 million in security assistance to sustain a baseline of support even if emergency funding stalls.
The National Transportation Safety Board had warned against a provision that it said would roll back critical air-safety requirements for military aircraft operating in Washington’s restricted airspace.
A group of conservative hard-liners mulled blocking the bill over its Ukraine assistance and the absence of a ban on a central bank digital currency.
But opposition on multiple fronts is routine for a final NDAA, and there was never significant risk of a rebellion capable of sinking the package.
