Boeing’s Starliner capsule departed the International Space Station on Friday evening and headed back to New Mexico without a crew.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will stay on the space station until February. They are expected to return to Earth with a SpaceX crew that will likely head to the ISS later this month. Two seats are open on what NASA jokingly called an “orbital Uber” on Friday.

NASA deemed it too risky to send the astronauts back on the Starliner because the capsule was struggling with engine problems and helium leaks. Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to leave the ISS in June, just a week after launch, turning an eight-day mission into more than an eight-month ordeal.

After testing the capsule’s engines, Boeing believed that Williams and Wilmore could safely return to the capsule. However, NASA disagreed with this view.

NASA astronaut says Starliner crew will likely change their training routine during their extended ISS stay

The unmanned Boeing Starliner capsule ignites its engines as it lifts off from the International Space Station on Friday. (NASA via AP)

NASA reported that Starliner had a “good attitude and good control” shortly after the fully automated capsule left the space station “on a perfect trajectory” back to Earth.

Landing is expected at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico approximately six hours after undocking.

The Starliner’s unmanned capsule took off from the ISS on Friday evening. (NASA)

“She’s on her way home,” Williams radioed after Starliner left the space station.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, a cosmonaut from Roscosmos, are expected to launch on the originally four-person mission to the space station in late September.

NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were excluded from the mission to make room for Williams and Wilmore, who were able to return home in the SpaceX capsule.

Butch Wilmore (left) and Suni Williams check safety equipment aboard the International Space Station on August 9. (NASA via AP)

The US had previously relied on Russia to transport astronauts to the ISS after the shuttle program was discontinued in 2011. This decision was made after the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere in 2003, killing all seven astronauts.

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SpaceX began launching astronauts to the space station on its rockets in 2020 after both the company and Boeing won a contract from NASA.