Boeing plans to keep Starliner at the space station for at least eight days before guiding it to a landing in the western U.S.

For the ride home, rather than plop the astronauts into the ocean as SpaceX does, Boeing will bring the astronauts home to the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. A system of parachutes and air bags should cushion the capsule's desert landing.

Two NASA test pilots blasted off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday.