IVAActive🇺🇸
Boeing Blue
Designation: BCES (Boeing Crew Escape Suit)
Boeing's lighter-than-ACES suit worn by Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the 9-month-long unplanned ISS stay.
About This Suit
The Boeing Blue pressure suit is Boeing's IVA suit for the CST-100 Starliner, manufactured by David Clark Company using advanced textile materials. At approximately 9 kg, it is roughly 40% lighter than the Shuttle-era ACES suit. Its defining feature is a soft, integrated helmet hood rather than a separate hard helmet — improving neck mobility and comfort during long Starliner mission profiles. Boeing Blue uses a PROSEAL zipper system from YKK Americas for airtight pressure retention, and touchscreen-compatible gloves for Starliner's Boeing-designed display interfaces. The suit gained unexpected notoriety when Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams wore it on the June 2024 Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission planned for 8 days — and ended up stranded on the ISS for approximately 9 months due to Starliner thruster failures, ultimately returning home on a SpaceX Dragon.
Key Features
- 1~40% lighter than Shuttle ACES — approximately 9 kg vs. 15 kg
- 2Soft integrated helmet hood (vs. separate hard helmet) improving neck mobility
- 3PROSEAL zipper (YKK Americas) for pressure-tight airtight sealing
- 4Touchscreen-compatible gloves for Boeing Starliner display interfaces
- 5Bright blue color scheme vs. traditional orange for crew identification
Historic Missions
2024
Starliner CFT (Crew Flight Test)
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — 8-day planned mission became ~9-month unplanned ISS stay; they returned on SpaceX Dragon in Feb 2025 wearing OCSS suits
👨🚀 Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams
Engineering & Research Highlights
- ◆PROSEAL zipper at operational pressure represented an advancement in soft-suit sealing technology
- ◆Lighter mass (9 kg) vs. ACES (15 kg) proved advanced textiles can match pressure suit performance at lower weight