Watch Starliner’s return to Earth
The astronauts on ISS closed the hatch yesterday on Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule in preparation for its return to Earth today, with a planned landing at White Sands, New Mexico, at 6:49 pm (Eastern).
I have embedded NASA’s live stream below. The undocking at 2:36 pm (Eastern), with the live stream beginning at 2:30 pm (Eastern). After the capsule separates and ends joint operations with ISS the live stream will break off until 5:45 pm (Eastern), when it will resume to cover the landing.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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The astronauts on ISS closed the hatch yesterday on Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule in preparation for its return to Earth today, with a planned landing at White Sands, New Mexico, at 6:49 pm (Eastern).
I have embedded NASA’s live stream below. The undocking at 2:36 pm (Eastern), with the live stream beginning at 2:30 pm (Eastern). After the capsule separates and ends joint operations with ISS the live stream will break off until 5:45 pm (Eastern), when it will resume to cover the landing.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Bob,
I wonder if you will hear the sonic boom from your location? White Sands is about five to six hours away from your city?
Jay: Tucson is more like 10 hours away from White Sands. Also, sonic booms are much more localized, probably not heard more than 30 miles away.
Did I hear right? There are more issues with the OMS/RCS thrusters (beyond the earlier shutdowns), but “there’s plenty of redundancy to draw from” according to the Boeing commentators.
Granted, it’s a test flight, but as I’ve said before you couldn’t pay me to set foot on this deathtrap.
V-Man: My understanding is that there have been no additional problems today. Two OMS thrusters shut down prematurely during the final orbital burn after launch. Then two RCS thrusters failed during maneuvers prior to docking.
Today Boeing engineers did tests of those failed thrusters after undocking to try to better understand why they failed.
Robert Zimmerman noted: “Also, sonic booms are much more localized, probably not heard more than 30 miles away.”
This is probably true. Several years ago, the Space Shuttle’s reentry path took it about 60-ish miles north of where I was. It was a nighttime reentry and beautiful to watch. Some observers thought it was kind of purpleish but I thought it was more pinkish. The point, though, is that when the sonic boom reached us, it was more of a very quiet “puff puff,” certainly too quiet to be heard from 60 miles away during the daytime, with all the regular ambient noise.