Sunita “Suni”
Williams
and
Barry “Butch”
Wilmore
are
still
in
space
despite
the
recent
launch
of
a
return
capsule
from
the
International
Space
Station.
Even
though
the
astronauts
have
been
at
the
ISS
since
June—when
their
Boeing
Starliner
experienced
equipment
failure,
forcing
NASA
to
extend
their
eight-day
mission
indefinitely—they
did
not
catch
a
ride
back
to
Earth
on
the
agency’s
SpaceX
Crew-8
craft,
which
successfully
touched
down
Oct.
25.
That’s
because
the
Crew-8
flight
was
already
assigned
to
NASA’s
Matthew
Dominick,
Michael
Barratt
and
Jeanette
Epps
as
well
as
Russian
cosmonaut
Alexander
Grebenkin,
who
had
all
been
on
the
ISS
since
March—approximately
three
months
longer
than
Williams
and
Wilmore.
The
four-person
team
was
part
of
a
regular
crew
rotation
on
the
ISS
and
had
long
been
assigned
to
the
Crew-8
flight.
In
fact,
their
mission
home
had
already
been
delayed
several
times
due
to
bad
weather
around
Florida,
preventing
the
departure
of
the
capsule.
Overall,
they
spent
a
total
of
232
days
aboard
the
space
station.
Style
