The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received promising news regarding their return to Earth. Recently, ground testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have been inoperative since early June, has been completed. Boeing and NASA were awaiting the results of these tests before discussing plans for the spacecraft’s voyage home.
According to an update, the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster took place at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Teams are now focused on reviewing the data collected. The purpose of the test was to analyze thruster performance, specifically to understand the failure of some thrusters that were non-operational during the flight and assess the potential implications of reactivating them.
The term “de-selected” refers to the thrusters that ceased functioning. Helium tanks responsible for controlling the thrusters experienced leaks before and during the launch, resulting in several delays. Officials had previously indicated that the Starliner has 70 hours’ worth of helium on board, despite only requiring seven. While they mentioned that the spacecraft could technically return at any moment, they emphasized they are not fully prepared for that eventuality just yet.
In their last update, NASA and Boeing suggested that the spacecraft could complete a return flight by the end of this month. Currently, the timeline is less defined: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and work towards finalizing flight rationale in support of readiness reviews for Starliner’s scheduled return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the upcoming weeks.”