The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew has received promising news regarding their spacecraft’s journey back to Earth. Recent ground testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, which had kept the Starliner in orbit since early June, has been completed. Boeing and NASA have been awaiting the results of these tests to begin planning for the spacecraft’s return.
An update disclosed that the objective of the testing was to assess thruster degradation, which would help understand why certain thrusters were deactivated during flight and the potential implications of reintegrating them into service for the upcoming Crew Flight Test.
Some thrusters were described as “de-selected,” meaning they had ceased functioning. Issues with the helium tanks, which control the thrusters, resulted in leaks before and during the Starliner’s launch, causing several delays. Officials noted that the spacecraft contains 70 hours’ worth of helium, despite only requiring seven hours for its operations. While they stated earlier this month that the Starliner could return to Earth immediately if necessary, they also indicated that some preparations still need to be finalized.
In their latest statement, NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight could take place at the end of this month. However, the timeline has since become less specific, with further actions required. “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections while moving 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.”