NASA sets coverage for Starliner press conference and return to Earth

Editor's note: This note was updated on September 6, 2024, to adjust the list of participants for the post-landing press conference.

NASA will provide live coverage of upcoming activities surrounding the departure of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft from the International Space Station and its return to Earth. The unmanned spacecraft will depart from the orbiting laboratory and land at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

Starliner is scheduled to autonomously undock from the space station at approximately 6:04 p.m. EDT on Friday, September 6, and begin its journey home, weather permitting. NASA and Boeing plan to land and complete the flight test at approximately 12:03 a.m. on Saturday, September 7.

NASA's live coverage of the return and related activities will be streamed on NASA+, the NASA app, and the agency's website. Learn how to stream NASA programs across various platforms, including social media.

Before the Starliner returns, NASA will hold a pre-flight press conference at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 4, at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA's commercial crew, International Space Station program managers and a flight director will participate.

To participate in the pre-flight press conference in person, U.S. media must contact the NASA Johnson Newsroom by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, at [email protected] or 281-483-5111. To participate in the pre-flight press conference by telephone, media must contact the NASA Newsroom at least two hours before the start of the teleconference.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on their first crewed flight aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 and arrived at the space station on June 6. As Starliner approached the orbiting laboratory, NASA and Boeing discovered helium leaks and experienced problems with the spacecraft's reaction control thrusters. For the safety of the astronauts, NASA announced on August 24 that Starliner will return to Earth from the station without a crew. Wilmore and Williams will remain aboard the station and return home in February 2025 aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

NASA's coverage is as follows (all times are Eastern Time and subject to change due to real-time operations):

Wednesday4 September