The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received encouraging news regarding their return trip to Earth. Recent ground testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it stranded in space since early June, has been successfully completed. Boeing and NASA had postponed planning for the vessel’s homecoming until these tests were finalized.
An update provided last week detailed that the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico has concluded, and teams are now focused on reviewing the data. The purpose of the tests was to analyze thruster degradation in order to understand why some thrusters were non-functional during the flight and to assess the potential impacts of reactivating these thrusters for the Crew Flight Test.
“De-selected” refers to the thrusters that became inoperative. Issues arose from leaks in the helium tanks that regulate the thrusters before and during the Starliner launch, resulting in several delays. Officials indicated previously that the spacecraft possesses 70 hours’ worth of helium onboard, though it only requires seven hours for its operation. While they asserted earlier this month that the Starliner could return immediately if necessary, they also expressed that they are not fully prepared for its return just yet.
In the latest update, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight could occur by the end of this month. However, the timeline has 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.”