While experts from the American company Boeing are busy assessing the risks associated with the return to Earth of astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been at the International Space Station since the beginning of June due to technical problems on the Starliner ship, the NASA Administration is developing action plans in case of emergencies.

Alternative options for returning astronauts to Earth include flying on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is currently docked to the station, but that would present a new problem.

Space suits Starliner Because they are not compatible with those used on the Crew Dragon, Suna Williams and Butch Wilmore will have to fly without them. While these IVA suits are different from EVA suits, they are still worn by astronauts to depressurize the spacecraft and save their lives in emergency situations.

The reason for the incompatibility of SpaceX and Boeing’s spacesuits lies in NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which funded the development of both the Starliner and Crew Dragon. As part of this, the space agency allowed private partners to “design and implement innovations, provided the companies meet NASA’s general requirements and safety standards.”

But the ministry did not specify that the spacesuits must be compatible. Boeing and SpaceX are not interchangeable because they take different design approaches.