The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received some encouraging news regarding their return to Earth. Recent ground tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept the vessel in space since early June, have been successfully completed. Boeing and NASA had been waiting for these tests to finalize plans for the Starliner’s return journey.
An update shared last week indicated that 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 objective of the tests was to examine thruster performance degradation to understand the reasons behind the failure of some thrusters during flight and to evaluate the implications of reactivating those thrusters for the Crew Flight Test.
When officials described some thrusters as “de-selected,” they referred to those that had ceased to function. Concerns arose from leaks in the helium tanks controlling the thrusters, causing several delays prior to and during the Starliner launch. During a press conference last month, officials noted that the spacecraft has 70 hours of helium on board, although it only requires seven hours to operate. While they mentioned earlier this month that the craft could return immediately if necessary, they indicated that they are not yet fully prepared for that eventuality.
Following the latest updates, NASA and Boeing stated that a return flight could potentially occur at the end of this month. However, the timeline has 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.”