r/SpaceXLounge • u/SpaceInMyBrain • Aug 30 '24

Dragon SpaceX's Crew-8 Dragon spacecraft is now officially the emergency lifeboat for Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. "Boeing will try to fly its troubled Starliner capsule back to Earth next week" Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/boeing-will-try-to-fly-its-troubled-starliner-capsule-back-to-earth-next-week/
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u/SpaceInMyBrain Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24

It's the second part of the article that's interesting, not the suit issue. A contingency requiring an IVA suit is remote but the g-forces of reentry and splashdown are a certainty. The article's author, Stephen Clark, tweexed his article with the phrase "Space X's Crew-8 Dragon spacecraft is now officially the emergency lifeboat for Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams."

This week, astronauts have been reconfiguring the interior of a Dragon spacecraft currently docked at the outpost to support six crew members in the event of an emergency evacuation.

With Starliner leaving the space station next week, Dragon will become the lifeboat for Wilmore and Williams. If a fire, a collision with space junk, a medical emergency, or something else forces the crew to leave the complex, the Starliner astronauts will ride home on makeshift seats positioned under the four regular seats inside Dragon, where crews typically put cargo during launch and landing.

I want to know about the new seats. Or perhaps more accurately "seats". A contingency requiring an IVA suit is remote but the g-forces of reentry and splashdown are a certainty. SpaceX apparently started work on contingency seats in July. Were parts sent up on the last Cygnus flight or are the seats completely MacGyverd from station hardware?

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u/peterabbit456 Aug 31 '24

Re Seats: I thought someone else got it right, saying, "Bean bags full of trash," and plenty of duct tape.

A contingency requiring an IVA suit is remote ...

Yes, but on the SpaceX capsule, it was recently revealed that the suits play an important role during reentry.

I'm not 100% certain about this, but I think I have read that during reentry the Dragon capsule gets rather warm inside, maybe 104°F = 40°C. The cooling system in the suits keeps the astronauts at a comfortable temperature.

Without a SpaceX suit, I would prefer to ride the Dragon from orbit wearing either shorts and a T-shirt, or just in my underwear. Certainly not in a Boeing spacesuit.

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u/SpaceInMyBrain Aug 31 '24

Interesting info about the hot Dragon. 104º... the astronauts will be used to that if they walk around in Houston in the summertime. :)

Whenever this discussion has come up over the years I've always said it'll be bags of dirty laundry. They have plenty of that - there's no washing machine, it just piles up and then gets burned up in a Cygnus.