The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received encouraging news regarding their return home. Recent ground tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it stranded in space since early June, have been successfully completed. Boeing and NASA had been waiting for these tests before planning the vehicle’s return.
An update published last week confirmed that the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is finished, and teams are now reviewing the data. The goal of the tests was to analyze any degradation in the thrusters, allowing engineers to understand why some thrusters were rendered non-operational during flight and to evaluate the implications of possibly reinstating those thrusters.
The term “de-selected” refers to certain thrusters that ceased functioning. Prior leaks in the helium tanks controlling the thrusters caused several delays before and during the Starliner launch. Officials stated last month that the spacecraft contains 70 hours of helium even though it only requires seven hours for its operations. While they indicated earlier this month that the Starliner could return immediately if necessary, they clarified they are not fully prepared for that yet.
In their most recent update, NASA and Boeing mentioned that a return flight could potentially occur by the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less specific: “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.”