Fan Casting But What About the Astronauts? in Sort by Tropes

Something really bad (Alien Invasion, The Virus, Nanomachines etc.) happens to everybody on Earth, but the survivors have forgotten that, following the Space Race, there have frequently been some humans not on Earth, and following the advent of the International Space Station, humans have maintained a continuous presence in space. This trope is a common way to have people survive an After the End situation. It can sometimes involve experimental or accidental off-Earth time travel, in which the astronauts are only gone for a brief moment, and pass right over Armageddon to come back to a ruined Earth.