Starliner lands on 'bull's-eye' at White Sands Missile Range

WHITE SANDS MISSLE RANGE – The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, traveling from the International Space Station, landed successfully Wednesday, May 25 at White Sands Space Harbor toward the northern portion of White Sands Missile Range.

The spacecraft returned from a six-day mission to the International Space Station as a test for future manned missions. NASA and Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 launched successfully May 19 from Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It landed in New Mexico at 4:49 p.m. MDT, four hours after leaving the orbiting lab.

According to the NASA TV narrator, the spacecraft landed about three-tenths of a mile southeast of the projected landing site, “basically a bull’s-eye.”

Three red, white and blue parachutes aided the landing, along with airbags.

A sonic boom was heard by people throughout the southern New Mexico area as the spacecraft neared its destination. The NASA TV narrator said after its reentry into the atmosphere, the craft was likely visible over the Gulf of Baja and northern Mexico.

The test flight was the second completed before NASA astronauts climb aboard in the next several months. The May 2022 test flight had only a mannequin onboard.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Starliner lands on 'bull's-eye' at White Sands Missile Range