The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner received encouraging news regarding its return to Earth. Ground testing for the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have left it stranded in space since early June, has recently concluded. Boeing and NASA were awaiting the completion of these tests to begin making plans for the spacecraft’s journey back home.
An update from last week confirmed that the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico has been finalized. Teams are now focusing on reviewing the data collected. The purpose of the tests was to evaluate thruster performance and observe any degradation to understand why certain thrusters were deactivated during flight and the potential effects of reactivating them on the overall Crew Flight Test.
The term “de-selected” refers to those thrusters that ceased operating. Issues arose from leaking helium tanks that control the thruster function both before and during the Starliner launch, which resulted in several delays. Although officials indicated last month that 70 hours of helium are available onboard, far exceeding the seven hours required for the flight, they also communicated that while a return is possible, they are not yet fully prepared for it.
In their most recent statement, NASA and Boeing suggested a potential return flight at the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less defined: “Boeing and NASA engineers will continue with thruster disassembly and inspections, and will proceed with finalizing flight rationale as part of the readiness reviews for Starliner’s scheduled return to Earth, with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, in the weeks ahead.”