Two months into what was scheduled to be an eight-day mission, we learn that spacesuit compatibility problems are also keeping NASA's astronauts stuck in space.
I missed something in the recent discussion about the possibility of Starliner's stranded crew returning to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon. The two crews wear different spacesuits, and they are not compatible with one another. If NASA determines that Starliner is not safe, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams must have spacesuits delivered to them on the International Space Station. Alternatively, they could return without suits.
From Mercury up to and including the American section of the International Space Station, all crewed spacecraft were designed by NASA engineers, who oversaw every stage of construction by an aerospace contractor. Today, spacecraft are designed and built under the Commercial Crew Program. According to NASA:
The companies own and operate their hardware and infrastructure. NASA's engineers and aerospace specialists work closely with the commercial companies, allowing for substantial insight into the development process and offering up expertise and available resources.
The spacecraft from different companies are, therefore, incompatible with each other, which is a hedge, in a way. If there is a problem with one design, as there appears to be with the beleaguered Boeing Starliner, NASA has an entirely different design to fall back on. In this case, of course, it creates complications for the Starliner crew, who are now more than two months into what was scheduled to be an eight-day mission.
There is nothing inherently dangerous in reentry without a spacesuit — as long as nothing goes wrong. The suits protect the astronauts from fire or loss of pressurization or oxygen. SpaceX Crew 9 is on hold, waiting for NASA to decide on the future of Starliner. SpaceX will need to leave two empty seats for Butch and Sunny to fill when Crew 9 returns in February 2025, as well as possibly deliver spacesuits for them to wear home.
