The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew received promising news regarding their return to Earth. Recent ground tests on the spacecraft’s thrusters have been completed, which had kept the Starliner in space since early June. Boeing and NASA were awaiting the results of these tests before starting to formulate plans for the spacecraft’s journey back home.
An update released last week confirmed, “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 analysis.” The tests aimed to understand the degradation of the thrusters, particularly why some were deactivated during the flight and to assess the implications of potentially restoring those thrusters for the Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to certain thrusters that malfunctioned. Issues arose from leaking helium tanks that control the thrusters, causing several launch delays. Officials mentioned that while the Starliner has 70 hours of helium on board, it requires only seven hours. Although they indicated that the spacecraft could return immediately if necessary, the readiness for that return is still under consideration.
In the latest update, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight could occur by the end of this month, though the timeline is now less certain. They stated, “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections and continue finalizing flight rationale in preparation for readiness reviews for Starliner’s planned return to Earth with crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in the coming weeks.”