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Boeing Starliner, leaving its crew behind, lands in New Mexico
The Starliner slammed into the discernible atmosphere 400,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean before descending to a parachute-and-airbag assisted touchdown.
Leaving its crew behind in orbit, Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station Friday and chalked up a successful unpiloted return to Earth, closing out a disappointing test flight with an on-target New Mexico touchdown at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday. The known helium leaks did not get worse and the reaction control system thrusters in the ship's service module, the ones that had problems early in the mission, worked as required to safely move the spacecraft away from the station and to keep it stable during the de-orbit burn. NASA The crew module, protected by a heat shield and equipped with 12 RCS jets of its own, then will begin its re-entry at an altitude of about 400,000 feet, enduring temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as plunges back into the discernible atmosphere at nearly five miles per second.
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