The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received promising news regarding their return home. Recently, Earthbound testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters was completed, which had been the main focus since the Starliner was launched in early June. Boeing and NASA were awaiting the completion of these tests before they could start planning the vehicle’s return journey.
A recent update indicated that the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico has finished, and teams are now focusing on reviewing the data. The purpose of the testing was to analyze thruster degradation to understand why certain thrusters malfunctioned during the flight and to evaluate the impacts of potentially reactivating those thrusters for the Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to some thrusters that ceased functioning. Issues arose with the helium tanks that control the thrusters, which were found to be leaking before and during the launch, causing several delays. Officials noted that while the spacecraft carries 70 hours’ worth of helium, it only requires seven hours for its operations. Although they mentioned earlier this month that the craft could return at any time if necessary, they clarified that they are not yet fully prepared for that eventuality.
The latest information from NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight might be possible by the end of this month. However, that timeline has become less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and continue to finalize 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.”