Summary

In Orbit 8, ascending the typhoon continues to grow as it ravels towards the Philippines. The narration recounts the day three months ago when Roman, Nell and Shaun arrived on the space station. The others welcomed them aboard. In Orbit 8, ascending, Nell thinks about her husband who lives in rural Ireland. They have lived apart for the majority of their relationship because of Nell’s astronaut training, leading her husband to decide to live in his home country of Ireland, rather than their shared flat in London, because she won’t be there most of the time wherever he decides to live. Nell remembers her husband’s theory that people with complicated inner lives need to create straightforward and predictable outer lives to cope with what’s going on in their minds. Whereas people who want to live expansive and adventurous outer lives...