The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received positive news regarding its anticipated return to Earth. Testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in space since early June, has been successfully completed. Boeing and NASA were waiting for these tests to finalize plans for the vessel’s journey home.
An update released last week announced, “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 data reviews.” This testing aimed to understand the reasons behind the failure of some thrusters during flight and assess the impacts of potentially returning them to service.
Officials noted that “de-selected” thrusters refer to those that ceased functioning. Issues arose from helium tanks, which control the thrusters, leaking before and during the Starliner launch, causing multiple delays. At a press conference last month, it was stated that the spacecraft has enough helium on board for 70 hours of operation, even though only seven hours are needed. While officials indicated that the craft could return immediately if necessary, they have acknowledged that it is not entirely ready for that yet.
In their latest update, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight might occur at the end of this month. However, this timeline has since become less certain: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and move forward with 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.”