The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received encouraging news regarding their spacecraft’s return to Earth. Recently completed ground tests on the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have been stranded in space since early June, have allowed Boeing and NASA to begin formulating a plan for the vessel’s homecoming.
An update from last week noted, “Ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico is complete, and teams are now focusing on data reviews.” The testing aimed to assess the degradation of the thrusters to understand why some were rendered inoperative during flight and to evaluate the implications of reactivating them for the Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to those thrusters that ceased functioning. Issues with helium tanks, which manage the thrusters, resulted in leaks before and during the Starliner’s launch, causing several delays. Officials mentioned in a recent press conference that the spacecraft contains 70 hours of helium, far exceeding the seven hours it requires. They indicated that while the spacecraft could return now if necessary, they are not yet prepared for that eventuality.
In their last briefing, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight could occur at the end of the month. However, the timeline has since become less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will conduct thruster disassembly and inspections and proceed with finalizing flight rationale in preparation for readiness reviews for Starliner’s return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the upcoming weeks.”