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NASA astronauts can't wear Boeing Starliner spacesuits in SpaceX's Dragon. Here's why


"In a temporary situation, we would not have suits for Butch and Suni on Dragon."

But after Starliner's propulsion system acted up during docking with the ISS June 6, NASA eventually concluded that putting the astronauts on board for a return would be too much of a risk. Crew-8 already has four spacesuited astronauts occupying its four seats as they conclude a half-year mission in space: NASA's Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. Such an accident has happened before, when the Soviet Union's Soyuz 11 crew of three died during landing after a valve popped open in their spacecraft; none of the cosmonauts was wearing a spacesuit.

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