The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received promising news regarding its return to Earth. Earth-based testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which has kept it in orbit since early June, has recently been completed. Boeing and NASA had held off on planning the vessel’s return until these tests were finalized.
Ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico has now concluded, and teams are beginning to analyze the data. The aim of the tests was to assess thruster performance degradation to gain insights into why certain thrusters failed during flight and the potential consequences of reactivating those thrusters on the overall Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to thrusters that ceased functioning. Issues arose before and during the Starliner launch due to leaks in the helium tanks that control the thrusters, causing several delays. At a recent press conference, officials noted that the spacecraft has 70 hours of helium on board, while only seven hours are necessary for operations. They indicated that while the vessel could theoretically return to Earth immediately, it is not yet ready to do so.
According to the latest updates, NASA and Boeing previously mentioned that a return flight might be possible by the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less specific: “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.”