August 19, 2024
Space Suit Designs Could Stall Boeing Starliner Astronauts
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts Boeing's Starliner spacecraft ferried into space in June, face an interesting conundrum about how they finally get home. Their ride back to Earth is in question thanks to issues with Starliner, and NASA is poised to make critical decisions on the issue soon. One of the toughest questions about their return trip from space has nothing to do with rockets. Instead, the latest issue centers around space suit sockets and seats.
Suit casesIn case you missed it: Boeing's Starliner space capsule is "stuck" at the International Space Station after a number of thruster malfunctions during its launch in June. It might become unstuck at some point if NASA and Boeing engineers can agree on what went wrong and how to fix the engine issues. Even so, Wilmore and Williams aren't technically stuck the same way their capsule is -- a number of options exist to get them home. However, their space suits pose an unexpected challenge to some potential paths to the astronauts' return. Years-old design decisions by two competing space companies leave the space mission with a classic innovator's dilemma issue, wrapped up in high-tech aerospace gear. International Space Station Photo credit: Getty Images
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