The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received encouraging news regarding its return to Earth. Recent ground testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters has been completed after the spacecraft had been in space since early June. Boeing and NASA had been awaiting the outcome of these tests to initiate plans for the spacecraft’s journey back.
According to an update released last week, the testing of the Starliner’s Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico has concluded, and the teams are now reviewing the data. The goal of the tests was to assess thruster degradation to understand why some thrusters failed to operate during flight and to determine the potential effects of reactivating them on the overall Crew Flight Test.
Some thrusters were labeled as “de-selected,” meaning they were not functioning. This issue arose from leaks in the helium tanks that control the thrusters, causing multiple delays prior to and during the Starliner’s launch. Although officials noted that the spacecraft has 70 hours’ worth of helium on board, far exceeding the seven hours it requires, they mentioned last month that while the craft could return if necessary, they were not yet prepared for its re-entry.
In a previous update, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight could be possible by the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less specific. Boeing and NASA engineers will now begin disassembling the thrusters and conducting inspections while finalizing flight rationale to prepare for readiness reviews for the Starliner’s eventual return to Earth, which will be commanded by Butch Wilmore and piloted by Suni Williams in the upcoming weeks.