Starliner Set for Return: What’s Next for Boeing and NASA?

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The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received encouraging news regarding their return home. Completion of ground testing for the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have been inoperable since early June, has recently been announced. Both Boeing and NASA were awaiting the results of these tests before they could begin arranging for the spacecraft’s journey back to Earth.

An update provided last week detailed that the testing for a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico has been finalized, allowing teams to focus on reviewing the data collected. The aim of the tests was to examine thruster degradation to understand why certain thrusters were deactivated during flight and to evaluate the potential effects of reactivating them on the overall Crew Flight Test.

The term “de-selected” refers to the thrusters that ceased functioning. Issues arose with the helium tanks, which control the thrusters, as they were found to be leaking both before and during the Starliner’s launch, resulting in several delays. Although officials reported last month that the spacecraft has 70 hours of helium, significantly more than the seven hours required, they indicated that while Starliner could return to Earth at any time, they are currently not prepared for that eventuality.

In the latest update, it was conveyed that a return flight could occur at the end of this month. However, the timeframe has since become less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will carry out thruster disassembly and inspections while moving forward with finalizing the flight rationale to support readiness reviews for Starliner’s scheduled return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the upcoming weeks.”

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