The Boeing CST-100 Starliner crew received encouraging news regarding their return home. Recent Earth-based testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in orbit since early June, has been completed. Boeing and NASA had been awaiting these tests to begin organizing the spacecraft’s return trip.
An update from late last week confirmed that the ground testing of a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico was successful, and teams are now focusing on reviewing the data. The objective of the test was to analyze thruster degradation to better understand why some thrusters were not operational during the flight and to evaluate the potential impact of reactivating those thrusters on the upcoming Crew Flight Test.
“De-selected” refers to those thrusters that became non-functional. There were leaks in the helium tanks controlling the thrusters both before and during the Starliner launch, causing several delays. During a press conference last month, officials noted that while the spacecraft has 70 hours’ worth of helium on board, it only needs seven. Although they mentioned earlier this month that the spacecraft could return immediately if necessary, they indicated that they are not completely prepared for that.
NASA and Boeing previously hinted at a potential return flight by the end of this month, but the timeline has since become less specific. The update stated, “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections and advance towards finalizing flight justification for Starliner’s planned return to Earth, with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, in the coming weeks.”