The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received encouraging news regarding their return to Earth. Recent testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it in orbit since early June, has been completed. Boeing and NASA had been awaiting these results to start planning the spacecraft’s journey home.
“Ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete, and teams are now focusing on data analysis,” an update provided late last week indicated. The primary goal of the tests was to assess thruster performance degradation to better understand why certain thrusters were not functional during the flight and to evaluate the potential impacts of reactivating them for the Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to the thrusters that failed to operate. There were issues with the helium tanks controlling the thrusters, resulting in leaks both before and during the Starliner’s launch, which caused multiple delays. At a press conference last month, officials noted that the spacecraft has a helium supply sufficient for 70 hours, despite only needing seven for its operations. Although they mentioned earlier this month that the craft could return home immediately if necessary, they still expressed that they are not fully prepared for that to occur.
In the latest update, NASA and Boeing indicated that a return flight could be scheduled for the end of this month. However, the timeline is now less defined: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with the disassembly and inspection of thrusters and continue finalizing flight procedures in preparation for readiness reviews regarding Starliner’s safe return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the upcoming weeks.”