The abandoned ability had been travelling in free approach afterwards undocking from the orbiting lab.
The capsule, which suffered abstruse problems afterwards it launched with Nasa's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, was accounted too chancy to booty the astronaut's home.
They will instead acknowledgment in a SpaceX Aggregation Dragon, but not until February - extending an eight-day break on the ISS to eight months.
Starliner's flight aback lasted six hours. Afterwards it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere parachutes were acclimated to apathetic its coast at the White Sands Amplitude Harbor in New Mexico on Saturday.
Nasa said beforehand that Butch and Suni were in acceptable alcohol and in approved acquaintance with their families.
Steve Stich, Nasa’s bartering aggregation programmed manager, told a media conference that both astronauts were amorous about their jobs.
“They accept the accent now of affective on and... accepting the agent aback safely.”
This was the aboriginal assay flight for Boeing’s Starliner aircraft with astronauts on board.
But it was bedeviled with problems anon afterwards it accursed off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 5 June.
The abridged accomplished leaks of helium, which pushes ammunition into the propulsion system, and several of its thrusters did not assignment properly.
Engineers at Boeing and Nasa spent months aggravating to accept these abstruse issues, but in backward August the US amplitude bureau assertively that Starliner was not safe abundant to accompany the astronaut's home.
Steve Stich accepted there was “tension in the room” amid Boeing and Nasa while the accommodation was actuality made, with Boeing arguing that their aircraft could cautiously acknowledgment with the brace on board.
“The Nasa team, due to the ambiguity and the modelling, could not get adequate with that,” he said.
The plan to use battling aggregation SpaceX has brought with it a cogent adjournment to the astronauts’ return.
The added time is to acquiesce SpaceX to barrage its abutting vehicle, with lift off appointed for the end of September.
It was declared to accept four astronauts on board, but instead it will be biking with two. This leaves allowance for Butch and Suni to accompany them in the agent to acknowledgment to Earth at the end of its planned break abutting February.
Dana Weigel, ambassador of the International Amplitude Station, said that the astronauts were adapting able-bodied to their continued mission. Both accept ahead completed two long-duration stays in space.
She said the brace were adventure the exercise programmed bare to break advantageous in the dainty environment.
And she added that they now had all of the accessory they bare for their adventitious eight-month stay.
“When we aboriginal beatific them up, they were borrowing a lot of our all-encompassing accouterment that we accept on board, and we accept now switched some of those things out,” she said.
She explained that a resupply mission in July had delivered “specific aggregation alternative items” that the brace had requested.
“So, they absolutely accept all of the accepted campaign accessory at this point that any added aggregation affiliate would be able to select. And we’ve got addition burden agent advancing up, so we’ll accelerate up annihilation abroad that they charge for the back end bisected of their mission on that flight.”
The issues with Starliner accept no agnosticism been a draft to Boeing, which is adversity from banking losses as it struggles to adjustment its acceptability afterward Contempo in-flight incidents and two baleful accidents bristles years ago.
After so abounding problems, a trouble-free landing will be an abundant adapted aftereffect for the aggregation - and for Nasa.
” After we get the agent back, we'll go through a brace months of post-flight analysis,” said Steve Stich.
“There are teams starting to attend at what we do to get the agent absolutely certified in the future.”
The US amplitude bureau has emphasized its charge to Boeing’s aircraft - accepting two American companies to booty astronauts to amplitude has been a key ambition for Nasa for some time.
When their amplitude shuttle agile was retired in 2011, the US spent a decade relying alone on Russia’s Soyuz aircraft to carriage its aggregation and burden - a bearings Nasa accepted was far from ideal.
So, in 2014, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded affairs to accommodate bartering amplitude flights for Nasa astronauts - Boeing’s was account $4.2bn (£3.2bn) while SpaceX accustomed $2.6bn (£2bn).
So far SpaceX has beatific nine crewed flights to amplitude for Nasa, as able-bodied as some bartering missions, but this was Boeing’s aboriginal attack at a crewed mission.
Boeing’s Starliner had already been delayed for several years because of setbacks in the spacecraft's development and two antecedent uncrewed flights in 2019 and 2022 additionally suffered abstruse problems.
But Nasa ambassador Bill Nelson says he is 100% assertive it would fly with a aggregation onboard again.
