The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew received encouraging news regarding their return to Earth. Recently, ground tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters were successfully completed. Both Boeing and NASA had been awaiting these results before starting plans for the Starliner’s homeward journey.
According to a recent update, “Ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete, and teams are now focused on reviewing the data.” The primary aim of the tests was to monitor any degradation in the thrusters, providing insights into why certain thrusters had malfunctioned during flight and assessing the feasibility of reactivating them.
Some thrusters were labeled as “de-selected” after they stopped functioning. This issue was attributed to leaking helium tanks, which affected the thrusters before and during the Starliner’s launch, causing several delays. In a press conference last month, officials noted that the spacecraft has enough helium for 70 hours, even though only seven hours are needed. While they indicated that the craft could technically return to Earth immediately if required, they also expressed that they were not fully prepared for such an event.
NASA and Boeing’s previous update suggested a possible return flight at the end of this month. However, this timeframe has since become less defined, stating, “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.”