Engineers from Boeing and NASA have spent much of the last month running ground tests on a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster to get a better idea of what went wrong during the active Starliner’s flight in early June, and they finally wrapped up this past week. In its latest update, Boeing said the teams were able to replicate the thrust degradation Starliner experienced and are now reviewing all the data. But the date of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ return is still uncertain — NASA and Boeing said only that they’ll be making the trip “in the coming weeks.”
In the tests at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, the teams simulated the conditions from Starliner’s recent flight, putting the control system thruster “through one of the most stressing launch-to-docking firing sequences with over 1,000 pulses to simulate CFT [Crew Flight Test] conditions,” according to Boeing. They also tested undocking and deorbit burn scenari
