The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received encouraging news regarding their return to Earth. Testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it in orbit since June, has recently been completed. Boeing and NASA had been awaiting the completion of these tests to initiate planning for the spacecraft’s journey home.
An update from last week noted, “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 reviewing the data.” The objective of the tests was to analyze the performance of the thrusters, specifically to understand why some were inactive during the flight and the potential effects of reactivating them.
Officials clarified that “de-selected” refers to the failure of some thrusters. The helium tanks that power the thrusters were found to be leaking before and during the Starliner’s launch, which resulted in several delays. During a prior press conference, it was stated that the spacecraft has 70 hours’ worth of helium onboard, despite requiring only seven for its operations. Though officials indicated earlier this month that the spacecraft could return at any time, they emphasized that they are not yet ready for that to happen.
In their latest communication, NASA and Boeing mentioned that a return flight might occur at the end of this month, but the timeline has since become less specific. “Boeing and NASA engineers will move forward with disassembling and inspecting the thrusters, and will continue finalizing flight rationale in preparation for readiness reviews for Starliner’s planned return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the weeks ahead.”