Boeing's Starliner returns safely to Earth, but without crew

Early Saturday morning, a chapter of the ongoing space saga involving two U.S. astronauts came to a close when Boeing's Starliner capsule returned to earth from the International Space Station, but with no one aboard. Mark Strassmann has the latest.

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[nancychace]

Glad Starliner made it home ok. They made the right decision. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Suni and Butch et al are safe. You can sort the rest out later.

[TheTransformationBodySwap]

How about Boeing leave it up to the professionals when it comes to space flight.

[tomwiggins]

All Space craft have had issues of some kind, it's a very risky business. NASA decided to play it safe this time and the Starliner performed perfectly despite all the bashing.

[yevettewalker]

I'm so happy I'm praying for suni and butch safe return ..in God we trust

[homeplanet]

Was there instrumentation on board that tells us how the astronauts would have dealt with the stress of an on land parachute landing?

[msreenivas]

We congratilate NASA and BOEING for their perseverance in srudiously trying all their human resources in bringing the spacecraft to earth without any untoward incidents.

[youtube.youtube.]

There's a rule that all pilots are taught: Deal with the situation - the way it actually is - not the way you planned it to be. NASA's call was wise and Boeing's stockholders will have the same level of financial risk as SpaceX's stockholders. Frankly, I don't care if all stockholders lose all their money, because the lives of astronauts are far more valuable.

[jeffreyrediel]

boewing couldn’t make good planes, yet we expected safe crafts to space? smh

[northerniltree]

Houston, we have a problem with female astronaught hairstyles in space. Over.

[jodiphenix]

Am I the only only one that laughed at Boeing's assurances?!😮

[juvvakrishna]

Why cant it go back and bring them to earth?

[AlbertRobinson-vy]

And what did this cost ?? Who picks up the Space X tab ?? Boeing? Enough..

[sasanrad]

Considering the many problems that this grape box has all Boeing needs to do is throw this garbage in the trash and redesign it and you may know after 4.5 billion dollars they can't.

[vivianvaldi]

You are funny : who cares about the crew ?

[donaldharlan]

It's such a tragedy. They didn't even trust those astronauts to return to Earth because they would make others sick and give someone cancer before burning to death from radiation poisoning. 🤮