The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received promising news regarding their anticipated return to Earth. Recent ground tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in orbit since early June, have been completed. Boeing and NASA were holding off on planning the return trip until these tests were finalized.
An update shared recently 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 reviewing the data.” The purpose of these tests was to examine any degradation of the thrusters to better understand why some had failed during flight, as well as to assess the potential impacts of reactivating those thrusters for the upcoming crew flight test.
When officials refer to the thrusters as “de-selected,” they indicate that some had ceased functioning. The helium tanks that control the thrusters experienced leakage issues both before and during the launch of the Starliner, which caused several delays. During a press conference last month, officials stated that the spacecraft still has 70 hours’ worth of helium onboard, despite only needing seven. Although they mentioned earlier this month that the craft could technically return at this moment, they clarified that they are not yet fully prepared for that eventuality.
In their latest communication, NASA and Boeing indicated that a return flight could occur at the end of this month. However, the timeline is now less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with the disassembly and inspections of the thrusters and will move forward with finalizing the flight rationale in support of readiness reviews for Starliner’s planned return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the coming weeks.”