The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received encouraging news regarding their return to Earth. Recently, successful ground tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters were completed, which have been stranded in space since early June. Boeing and NASA had postponed planning the return until these tests were concluded.
An update from last week noted, “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 reviews.” The goal of the tests was to identify thruster degradation to understand why certain thrusters were not operational during flight and to assess the feasibility of reactivating them for the upcoming Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to the thrusters that failed to operate, which was attributed to leaks in the helium tanks that control these thrusters, causing multiple delays. Officials had indicated at a recent press conference that the spacecraft has 70 hours’ worth of helium available, even though only seven hours are required. While they mentioned that the spacecraft could return immediately if necessary, they emphasized that it is not fully prepared for the journey home yet.
According to the latest update from NASA and Boeing, a return flight was initially anticipated by the end of this month. However, the timeframe has now become less specific: “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.”