Boeing's Calamity Capsule returns to Earth without a crew

Boeing's Calamity Capsule has returned to Earth, bringing to an end a test mission that did not go entirely according to plan. Not least because the Starliner's crew had to stay behind aboard the International Space Station.

That Boeing's CST-100 Starliner's return to Earth was relatively uneventful and, according to NASA's commercial crew manager Steve Stich, ended with a "bullseye landing" in New Mexico, will be scant comfort to the engineers dealing with the fact that this commercial crew-carrying spacecraft was deemed unfit to carry a crew.

That's not to say the Starliner's re-entry was without incident. During a post-landing news conference, Stich noted that one of the 12 thrusters on the Boeing podule didn't perform as expected, and a redundant thruster was able to take over. The navigation system also temporarily had difficulty acquiring a GPS signal as the spacecraft came ...