About 250 miles above Earth, NASA crew members aboard the International Space Station took an off-duty day for Thanksgiving and shared 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 resupply mission delivered a “Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bag” (BOB) filled with festive items such as clams, oysters, crab meat, quail and smoked salmon. Zena Cardman said ground teams and NASA’s food lab had prepared traditional dishes—turkey and mashed potatoes—packaged to avoid mess in microgravity. “We’ve even got some lobster, which is amazing,” she added.
Fincke showed a can of cranberry sauce that came from the Russian space agency, noting it was one of his favorite parts of the meal and that while he’d miss his family, he was celebrating with his “space family.” Cardman, Fincke and Jonny Kim planned to dine with three Russian cosmonauts and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui. Yui said that although Japan doesn’t observe Thanksgiving, everyone on the ISS respects each other’s cultures and he was looking forward to the dinner.
A Soyuz launch carrying three new station crew members, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams, was scheduled to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:27 a.m. Eastern, potentially arriving in time to join the celebration.