While this may not have been how we originally envisioned the test flight concluding, we support NASA’s decision for Starliner and are proud of how our team and spacecraft performed,
I think we made the right decision not to have Butch and Suni on board,
It's always hard to have that retrospective look. We made the decision to have an uncrewed flight based on what we knew at the time and based on our knowledge of the thrusters and based on the modeling that we had."
It was a bullseye landing,
We are excited to have Starliner home safely. This was an important test flight for NASA in setting us up for future missions
We will review the data and determine the next steps for the program,
Leaving them there was a tough decision to make. It was really hard to determine whether to be uncrewed or not,
It is time to bring Calypso home,
It’s unclear if or when the company will have another opportunity to bring astronauts to space,
Boeing continues to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”
She's on her way home,
We’ll come home when we’re ready,
We have your backs, and you’ve got this,
At that point, ... you've really got to have the thrusters working right, because they're steering the ship as it's firing its main engines, and it's important that the main engines fire in the right direction,
This will be like NASCAR for NASA,
There are five 'sets' of thrusters and if they can still rotate the spacecraft, sets of thrusters can take over for ones that are out,
The worst case scenario there is that you lose the thruster system completely, for example, and you can't steer the spacecraft while it's making the de-orbit burn,
I wouldn't say it was a yelling, screaming kind of meeting,
Boeing believed in the model that they had created that tried to predict the thruster degradation for the rest of the flight, ... the NASA