The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received a promising update regarding their eventual return home. Recent tests conducted on the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in orbit since early June, have now been completed. Boeing and NASA had awaited these tests to begin organizing the Starliner’s return journey.
An update released late last week announced, “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 tests aimed to analyze the degradation of the thrusters, providing insight into why some of them were deactivated during flight and the implications of reactivating them for the remainder of the Crew Flight Test.
Some thrusters were “de-selected,” meaning they failed to operate. Issues with helium tanks regulating the thrusters resulted in leaks prior to and during the Starliner’s launch, causing several delays. Officials noted that while the spacecraft has enough helium for 70 hours of operation, it only requires seven. They indicated earlier this month that although the craft could return immediately if necessary, they are not fully prepared for that scenario yet.
In their latest communication, NASA and Boeing mentioned that a return flight might occur by the end of this month. However, the timeline has become less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, while working on finalizing flight rationale to support readiness reviews for Starliner’s planned return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the coming weeks.”