Now all that remains is for them to go through a large amount of data before the crew can return home.
For the better part of the past month, engineers from Boeing and NASA have been conducting ground tests on a thruster that is part of the Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS). The purpose of these tests is to gain a better understanding of what went wrong during the flight of the operational Starliner in the beginning of June. These tests were finally completed this past week. The most recent report provided by Boeing stated that the teams were successful in recreating the thrust deterioration that the Starliner encountered and are currently analyzing all of the data. However, the date that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth is still unknown. NASA and Boeing have only stated that they will be making the voyage “in the coming weeks.”
During the tests that took place at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, the teams simulated the conditions that were present during the most recent flight of the Starliner. They did this by putting the control system thruster “through one of the most stressful launch-to-docking firing sequences with over 1,000 pulses to simulate CFT [Crew Flight Test] conditions,” as stated by Boeing. In addition, they studied scenarios involving undocking and deorbit burn, both of which will be experienced by Starliner on its trip back home. Following the collection of terabytes of data from those tests, the teams conducted additional experiments that were more rigorous in order to “see if we could more closely simulate the higher thermal conditions the thrusters experienced in-flight,” as stated by Dan Niedermaier, the engineer for the thruster testing at Boeing.
Engineers are currently engaged in the process of performing “engine tear downs and inspections,” according to Steve Stich, the manager of the Commercial Crew Program at NASA, who made the announcement on Thursday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that an Agency Flight Test Readiness Review will be conducted in order to ascertain whether or not the Starliner is in favorable condition to return the astronauts back. In a briefing that will take place in the following days, NASA and Boeing have stated that they will reveal additional details.