Spaceflight Now by Stephen Clark May 24, 2022
Astronauts on the International Space Station closed the hatch to Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft Tuesday, and ground teams used the lab’s robotic arm to inspect the capsule’s heat shield to clear the test vehicle for undocking Wednesday and return to Earth for a late afternoon landing in New Mexico.
The Boeing-owned spacecraft launched last Thursday and docked at the space station Friday night, reaching the orbiting research complex for the first time after officials aborted a test flight in 2019. The unpiloted demonstration mission is set to conclude Wednesday with an automated departure from the space station, followed a few hours later by a parachute-assisted, airbag cushioned landing at White Sands Space Harbor.
NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines closed the forward hatch to the Starliner spacecraft at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) Tuesday. Hines became the first person to enter a Starliner spacecraft in orbit Saturday, when the station crew opened the hatch and began three days of inspections and checkouts inside the capsule’s crew cabin.
Lindgren and Hines, who arrived at the station on a SpaceX Dragon capsule last month, performed several tests inside the Starliner capsule during its docked stay at the space station. They performed communications checks inside the Starliner spacecraft, unpacked about 500 pounds of cargo, then replace it with about 600 pounds of cargo for return to Earth.
The Starliner is scheduled to undock from the station at 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT) Wednesday, then back away to a safe distance from the complex before a 58-second braking burn at 6:05 p.m. EDT (2205 GMT) to drop out of orbit.
More:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/05/24/starliner-spacecraft-cleared-for-undocking-and-re-entry/