The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner received encouraging news about their return journey. Recent earthbound tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it stranded in space since early June, have been completed. Boeing and NASA had been waiting for these tests to conclude before planning the vessel’s return.
An update last week stated, “Ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete, and teams are now focusing on data reviews. The objective was to observe thruster degradation to understand why some thrusters were deselected in-flight and the potential impacts of returning those thrusters to service during the Crew Flight Test.”
Officials clarified that “deselected” means some thrusters stopped working. Tanks holding helium, which controls the thrusters, experienced leaks before and during the Starliner launch, causing multiple delays. At a press conference last month, officials noted the ship has 70 hours’ worth of helium onboard, though it only needs seven hours. While they mentioned that the craft could return now if necessary, they also indicated they are not fully ready for its return.
In the last update, NASA and Boeing mentioned that a return flight could happen at the end of this month. Currently, the timeline is a bit more uncertain: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and advance toward finalizing flight rationale to support readiness reviews for Starliner’s return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the coming weeks.”