Suni and Butch will do great

They were trained as test pilots and then as astronauts and that put them in a wonderful position to deal with an extended stay in space 101 open

- NICOLE STOTT

AN ASTRONAUT is prepared for the unpredictable. When Suni's (Sunita Williams) colleague Butch Wilmore said they had planned for 10 days stay at the International Space Station, they were [actually] prepared for a longer stay. (They eventually spent 286 days in space). The bulk of our training is on how to deal with unexpected situations, particularly emergencies.

This never turned into an emergency. This is just one of the potential alternatives, when the need was to stay for a longer duration.

Suni and Butch did amazing, important, meaningful work during their stay on the ISS. Though I am not in the NASA astronaut office anymore, Suni is a friend and we have known each other for a long time. We keep in touch and we exchanged emails even when she was on the space station. In an interview, she said space was her happy place. The way Suni entered the space station at the start, she was as excited as a little kid. She carried that energy all through her flight.

The experience closest to living and working in space is living in Aquarius, an undersea research station (off the coast of Florida), as part of astronaut training. The Aquarius experience is aimed at taking trainees out of their comfort zone and to teach them how to work better to solve problems.