The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew received encouraging news regarding its eventual return to Earth. Testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in orbit since early June, has concluded. Boeing and NASA were awaiting these test results to begin organizing the mission’s return.
According to an update shared last week, the ground testing for a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is finished. Teams are now focused on reviewing the data collected. The primary goal of the tests was to observe any degradation in the thrusters, providing insights into why some thrusters were not operational during the flight and assessing the implications of reactivating them for the upcoming Crew Flight Test.
Some thrusters were “de-selected,” meaning they failed to operate due to leaks in the helium tanks that control them, which impacted the launch schedule. Last month, officials revealed that the spacecraft holds 70 hours’ worth of helium, though only seven are needed for the flight. Although they indicated the spacecraft could return to Earth immediately if necessary, they noted they were not fully prepared for that scenario just yet.
In their latest update, NASA and Boeing mentioned that a return flight might be possible by the end of this month, but the timeline is now less specific. They stated, “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.”