The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew received encouraging news regarding their spacecraft’s return to Earth. Recent tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it in orbit since early June, have been completed. Boeing and NASA awaited these results to begin planning the craft’s return journey.
The update from late last week indicated, “Ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete, and teams are now turning their attention to data reviews.” The objective of these tests was to assess thruster degradation and understand the failure of some thrusters during flight, as well as the potential implications of reactivating them for the Crew Flight Test.
When officials mention “de-selected” thrusters, they refer to those that failed to function. Issues with helium tanks, crucial for thruster operation, were identified before and during the Starliner launch, causing several delays. Officials noted last month that the spacecraft contains 70 hours’ worth of helium, despite only needing seven hours for its operations. While they previously stated the craft could come back immediately if necessary, they also mentioned that they are not fully prepared for its return just yet.
In their most recent update, NASA and Boeing suggested a potential return flight by the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less defined: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and move forward with finalizing flight rationale in support of readiness reviews for Starliner’s nominal return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the coming weeks.”