Boeing's Starliner spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station on Sept. 6, 2024 leaving behind its first crew of US astronauts to return to Earth empty and finish a drawn-out test mission fraught with technical issues. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who became the first two to fly Starliner in June, remained on the ISS with seven other astronauts 250 miles (400 km) in orbit as Starliner autonomously departed the laboratory at 6:04 p.m. ET (2204 GMT) for a six-hour journey toward Earth. It will reenter Earth's atmosphere at around 11:17 p.m. (0317 GMT on September 7), followed by a 12:03 a.m. parachute-assisted touchdown at the White Sands Space Harbor, an arid military test site in New Mexico.
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