Why the Stranded Astronauts Weren’t on SpaceX Capsule’s Return Voyage
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.
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