NASA’s coverage continues on NASA+, the NASA app, and YouTube, and the agency’s website as Boeing’s uncrewed Starliner spacecraft begins entry interface 400,000 feet above Earth.
As the hottest part of re-entry, the spacecraft’s heat shield will reach 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it enters the atmosphere.
Starliner is equipped with an ablative heat shield containing a layer of plastic resin that will heat up to gas and carry the heat away from the crew capsule through convection. This process helps keep the temperature inside the capsule around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Similar heat shields were used on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecrafts.
The spacecraft is expected to land at approximately 12 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
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