About 250 miles above Earth, NASA crew members aboard the International Space Station will take an off-duty day for Thanksgiving and share a special group meal.
“This is my second Thanksgiving in space, so I highly recommend it,” said Mike Fincke in a video message from the station.
A recent resupply included a “Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bag” (BOB) packed with festive items such as clams, oysters, crab meat, quail and smoked salmon. The station will also have traditional Thanksgiving dishes—turkey and mashed potatoes—packaged to prevent spills in microgravity. “We’ve even got some lobster, which is amazing,” said astronaut Zena Cardman. “I think it’s going to be a really, really delicious meal.”
Fincke showed a can of cranberry sauce that came from the Russian space agency. “It’s kind of neat to have that up here because that’s one of my favorite parts,” he said, adding that while he’ll miss his family, “I’m up here with my space family and it’s really awesome.”
Cardman, Fincke and fellow NASA astronaut Jonny Kim will share the holiday meal with three Russian cosmonauts and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui. “We don’t have Thanksgiving in Japan, but here, on ISS, everybody respects each other’s culture,” Yui said, and noted he was looking forward to the dinner.
If schedules hold, more crew will arrive in time for the celebration: a Soyuz carrying three new station crew members, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams, is scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:27 a.m. Eastern on Thursday.