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The stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts planned to hitch a ride home with SpaceX, but their space suits aren’t compatible with Elon Musk’s spacecraft
Fortune ^ | August 22, 2024 | Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

Posted on 08/30/2024 4:43:32 PM PDT by george76

After being stranded on the International Space Station since June, two astronaut castaways may still be months away from returning to Earth—in part because of incompatible space suits.

The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, have had to extend what was supposed to be an eight-day trip on the ISS, because of a helium leak and thruster malfunctions on their Boeing-made Starliner spacecraft. NASA and Boeing are testing to see if it’s safe for the astronauts to return on the Boeing Starliner, but are also considering alternatives given the possible risks.

NASA has yet to make a decision, but one of those alternatives includes sending the astronauts home on a Dragon spacecraft, manufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, that is already docked at the station, a representative from the space agency said during a press conference last week, Ars Technica reported.

Yet, that approach comes with complications, as explained by Swapna Krishna, the journalist behind the space-themed YouTube channel Ad Astra. If NASA chose that option, Wilmore and Williams would be the fifth and sixth astronauts on a spacecraft that’s limited to four passengers. And because their Starliner suits aren’t compatible with the Dragon spacecraft, they would have to return to Earth without suits on, which isn’t inherently dangerous, but offers them less protection in case something goes wrong with the capsule.

The differing suit designs and plugs for the Starliner and Dragon spacecraft comes down to a new process for commercial crewed space missions that NASA has implemented. Previously, NASA was extremely involved in the manufacture and testing of spacecraft and space suits.

Yet since the 2010s when NASA developed the commercial crew program, it has given private companies more freedom in how they develop and manufacture equipment for the agency, including space suits, as long as it meets broad safety requirements. For instance, NASA didn’t specify that space suits for each commercial spacecraft need to be cross-compatible with one another. In fact, having two different suit designs for each spacecraft could also be beneficial, according to Krishna.

“If the suits used the same type of plug, and some sort of flaw was found within that plug or some other sort of standardized connector, it would ground both spacecraft,” she said in a Sunday video.

A spokesperson for Boeing referred a request for comment to NASA. NASA and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NASA has said the astronauts are not “stranded” on the ISS.

...

Another alternative is sending the astronauts home on a different Dragon spacecraft that’s set to reach the ISS in September. This ship could reach the space station with only two of its usual four crew members and could send up extra (Dragon-compatible) space suits, which would allow Wilmore and Williams to return to Earth fully suited in the two unfilled seats.

But if NASA chose this alternative, the Starliner ship that the astronauts originally flew in would have to undock and return to Earth autonomously to make room for the Dragon spacecraft arriving in September, and Boeing has said it might not be able to do that. Because of the way Boeing’s contract with NASA is structured, the company has had to absorb the extra costs associated with the technical failures of its Starliner. The company has already taken about $1.6 billion in charges on its Starliner program.

If the Starliner left the space station without a crew, the astronauts on the ISS would also have to install two extra seats on the remaining Dragon spacecraft until the next Dragon arrives, because the remaining docked ship must provide enough seats to accommodate all of the NASA astronauts in case of an emergency.

The marooned astronauts would need to take the place of the two astronauts pulled from the Dragon mission to accommodate them, which would keep them aboard the ISS until the regular rotation ends in February 2025. That would mean turning what was supposed to be just over a weeklong mission into eight months. Although both astronauts have completed longer missions on the ISS before, those were filled with less uncertainty. Wilmore’s wife told a CBS station in Knoxville that she is preparing for her husband to miss Christmas and the couple’s 30th wedding anniversary.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: astronaut; astronautcastaways; astronauts; boeing; castaways; nasa; oldarticle; spaceoddity; spacex; starjunker; stranded
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To: Openurmind

Maybe but it is a part. Maybe a big part of excessive cost to operate that will sink the effort to get widespread adoption and future sales. That seems short sighted.
I am interested in a gas electric hybrid, never a plug in electric only. And I want the lower cost of replacing the gas electric hybrid battery when it needs it.


41 posted on 08/30/2024 5:56:03 PM PDT by desertsolitaire ( )
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To: george76

Back in the 1960’s we had actual engineers with a slide rule that could fix this and even use duct tape if necessary.


42 posted on 08/30/2024 5:56:31 PM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: Openurmind
"What? No standardized space suits? :)"

Kind of reminds me of how years ago, the gauges of the wheels on Europe's rail systems differed from country to country. They would have to pull a train off on a side track, take off the set of wheels whose gauge couldn't run on the other country's track system, and replace them with ones that would.

43 posted on 08/30/2024 6:13:45 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: IndispensableDestiny

Another possible solution: modify two seats in the Dragon capsule for the Starliner suits. I’m sure Musk wouldn’t mind doing it.


44 posted on 08/30/2024 6:14:26 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: george76

1. They are stranded, actually.

2. Boeing has lissed away 2 billion and the govt gave it to them because they weren’t SpaceX/Musk.

3. This occurred because of politics and a president disliking a particular entrepreneur.


45 posted on 08/30/2024 6:21:07 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: mass55th

The lack of standardization was deliberate in this case. NASA wanted two distinct families of space vehicles with two different spacesuit designs, the thinking being that a flaw that emerged in a unitary spacesuit design would not ground both types of vehicles. The flip side to that philosophy is the predicament they’re in now.


46 posted on 08/30/2024 6:25:22 PM PDT by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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so send extra suits!!! or make some damn Dongles that can mate the two systems


47 posted on 08/30/2024 6:28:30 PM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: steve86
"The flip side to that philosophy is the predicament they’re in now."

Thanks for the info on how NASA's decisions haven't always been sound or good. I just hope they can get these people back home ASAP.

48 posted on 08/30/2024 6:37:06 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: doorgunner69

“Fer crissake, even the Russians made their aircraft fuel fittings compatible with US stuff.”

I am so happy someone decied to make standardized batteries

AAA AA, C, D, 9v.

today every electronic device phone or camera has a proprietary size and it sucks.

yeah there are 18650 batteries but there are also a ton of other random sizes too.

So annoying

Can you imagine if every manufacturer had proprietary plugs on their devices and you had to buy an adapter to plug them into a wall outlet ?


49 posted on 08/30/2024 6:44:22 PM PDT by algore
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To: cableguymn

That is certainly the only place that people like that could find a job.


50 posted on 08/30/2024 6:49:44 PM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: markman46

Both worn by humans, what is incompatible?

This is life support equipment, not designer clothes.


51 posted on 08/30/2024 6:51:20 PM PDT by doorgunner69 (I don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don't think he knows what he said either)
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To: mass55th

Wasn’t just Europe. We did the same thing.


52 posted on 08/30/2024 6:59:33 PM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy saints surrounded.)
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To: NorthMountain

I had heard last week suits were being sent up. Lag in news, I guess.


53 posted on 08/30/2024 7:08:43 PM PDT by rlmorel (J.D. Vance and The Legend of The MaMaw of The 19 Loaded Guns!)
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To: Brandonmark
They have a clown named Bill Nelson running NASA these days...another wornout political hack!

Nepotism. He's Maj. Tony Nelson's younger brother.


54 posted on 08/30/2024 7:35:52 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: steve86

You would think they would have been smart enough to make an adapter for each to the other.


55 posted on 08/30/2024 8:03:03 PM PDT by cableguymn (They don't want peace they want skeletons )
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To: george76

Good Grief! 😣


56 posted on 08/30/2024 8:16:57 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: doorgunner69

Maybe Putin can save them? Send em some Russian suits to wear?


57 posted on 08/30/2024 8:37:55 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (. War is Hell)
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To: george76

Space travel was easier when Buck Rogers did it.


58 posted on 08/30/2024 8:47:20 PM PDT by citizen (Put all LBQTwhatever programming on a new subscription service: PERV-TV)
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To: VTenigma

“Send some suits up for them on the Dragon.”

i read that one dragon suit had already been sent up ....


59 posted on 08/30/2024 9:13:05 PM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: mass55th

Wow, I honestly didn’t know about that. Thank you.


60 posted on 08/30/2024 11:41:50 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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