- Boeing safely landed its first CST-100 Starliner spaceship, named "Calypso," in New Mexico on Sunday.
- No astronauts flew aboard the Starliner. The mission was designed to show the vehicle, which NASA funded through its Commercial Crew Program, is safe to fly astronauts.
- But the Starliner suffered a major glitch with a clock shortly after launch, causing it to veer off-course.
- Boeing rescued the mission, which NASA officials said should achieve about 90% of its objectives despite not reaching its planned destination, the International Space Station.
- However, no one could say whether or not the company's next mission would be a redo of the uncrewed test flight or the first with astronauts riding inside.
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Boeing and NASA officials seemed proud, and perhaps a little giddy, after the company's first new orbital-class spaceship, the CST-100 Starliner, landed with barely a scratch in New Mexico on Sunday.
"You look at the landing, it was an absolute bull's-eye. Better than, I think, anybody anticipated," Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, said during a press conference that day. "That's good for the agency, it's good for Boeing, and it's good for the United States of America."
But just two days before, the autonomous spacecraft - which carried no people on its maiden flight - suffered from a critical timing error that, without intervention from mission control, likely would have ended with the loss of the uncrewed Starliner and its cargo of food and Christmas presents bound for the International Space Station.
More importantly, the Orbital Flight Test mission was designed to show NASA the spacecraft is safe to fly astronauts on a follow-up test flight, ostensibly planned for mid-2020.
"It's disappointing for us," Jim Chilton, the senior vice president of Boeing's Space and Launch division, said of the error just after launch on Friday.
Here's what happened during the historic mission and why both Boeing and NASA officials now, after landing "Calypso," as astronauts have named the space-worthy ship, seem surprisingly upbeat about its performance.
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