The crew of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner has received positive news regarding their return to Earth. Recent ground testing of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which have kept it in orbit since early June, has been completed. Boeing and NASA were waiting for these tests to finalize plans for the Starliner’s homecoming.
An announcement 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 reviewing the data.” The purpose of the tests was to evaluate the degradation of the thrusters, particularly to understand why some were not operational during the flight and the potential impact of reinstating those thrusters for the overall Crew Flight Test.
Some thrusters had previously stopped working, attributed to leaking helium tanks that affected the spacecraft before and during its launch, leading to several delays. Officials mentioned last month that while the Starliner has 70 hours’ worth of helium on board, it only requires seven hours for its operations. Although they stated earlier that the spacecraft could return immediately if necessary, they indicated that they were not yet fully prepared for its return.
The latest update from NASA and Boeing suggested that a return flight could occur at the end of this month. However, the timeline has become less specific: “Boeing and NASA engineers will proceed with thruster disassembly and inspections, and work towards finalizing the flight rationale in support of readiness reviews for Starliner’s planned return to Earth with commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams in the coming weeks.”