Back on the Ground

[krpalmer]

Returning the Starliner space capsule to Earth at last but without anyone on board hadn’t seemed a vote of confidence, and I did keep track of the leadup to its scheduled night landing. When I’d got up the next morning, though, the capsule itself had parachuted down to the desert. There were no noticeable comments in the short trip-back updates provided about more trouble with the thrusters. The pictures that had piled up of the capsule attached to the space station had got me thinking the thrusters that came back to Earth had been covered up in flight in somewhat the same way as video coverage of space shuttle launches had shown white covers tearing off the rear thrusters as the main engines ignited, and the thrusters that had caused problems in the first place had been jettisoned to burn up on reentry. Just how many more crew capsules will be launched by SpaceX before another Starliner gets off the ground seems the question now.