NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have been on the International Space Station for more than eight months, even though they initially expected to stay for just about eight days. But it’s finally time to come home. A relief crew for the ISS is expected to launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday night, and Williams and Wilmore should be on their way home as early as March 16.
The new crew heading to the ISS consists of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
Once they arrive, there will be a two-day handover period, and then Williams, Wilmore, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will be on their way back to Earth.
On March 7, Williams turned over command of the ISS to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin,…
