The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received promising news regarding their return to Earth. Recent ground tests on the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in space since early June, have been completed. Boeing and NASA were waiting for these tests before planning the vessel’s return trip.
Officials reported that the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is finished, and the teams are now focusing on data analysis. The purpose of the test was to assess thruster degradation, which will help understand the issues that caused some thrusters to be unused during flight and evaluate the potential implications of reinstating them.
“De-selected” refers to the thrusters that ceased functioning. There were leaks in the helium tanks controlling the thrusters both before and during the Starliner’s launch, resulting in multiple delays. During a press conference last month, officials mentioned that the spacecraft has 70 hours of helium available, despite only requiring seven. While they indicated earlier this month that the craft could return immediately if necessary, they have stated they are not yet fully prepared for that.
In their latest update, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight might be possible towards the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less specific. “Boeing and NASA engineers will continue with thruster disassembly and inspections and will work on finalizing flight rationale in preparation for readiness reviews for Starliner’s anticipated return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the upcoming weeks.”