The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew received positive news regarding their spacecraft’s return to Earth. Ground testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it stranded in space since early June, has recently been completed. Boeing and NASA were awaiting these tests to start planning for the Starliner’s homecoming.
An update reported that the 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 reviewing the gathered data. The goal of these tests was to understand thruster degradation and to determine why some thrusters were not operational during flight, as well as the potential impacts of returning those thrusters to service.
“De-selected” refers to thrusters that ceased to function. Issues arose with helium tanks that control the thrusters, which were found to be leaking before and during the Starliner launch, causing several delays. Officials indicated last month that while the spacecraft has 70 hours’ worth of helium on board—far more than the seven hours needed—it isn’t yet prepared for an immediate return.
In their latest communication, NASA and Boeing mentioned that a return flight could occur by the end of this month. However, the timeline has become less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and continue 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.”