Along with traditional Thanksgiving fare, NASA astronauts on the International Space Station will enjoy clams, smoked salmon and lobster.
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About 250 miles above Earth, NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will enjoy an off-duty day for Thanksgiving, as well as a group meal that will include some celebratory foods.
“This is my second Thanksgiving in space, so I highly recommend it,” said Mike Finke in a video message from the outpost.
This fall, NASA added a “Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bag,” or BOB, to the resupply mission that flew to the station. The bags contained festive goodies like clams, oysters, crab meat, quail and smoked salmon.
“Our ground team and NASA’s Food Lab have taken great care of us,” said Zena Cardman. He said they will also have traditional dishes like turkey and mashed potatoes, packaged in a way that won’t be disturbed in microgravity. “We also got some lobster, which is amazing. So I think it’s going to be a really delicious meal.”
Finke displayed a can of cranberry sauce, which came from the Russian Space Agency.
“It’s great to have it here because it’s one of my favorite parts,” he said. “Of course, I’ll miss my family. But I’m here with my space family and it’s really wonderful.”
Cardman and Finke, along with fellow NASA astronaut Johnny Kim, will share their holiday meal with three Russian astronauts and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui.
“We don’t have Thanksgiving in Japan, but here, on the ISS, everyone respects each other’s culture,” Yui said. He said he was looking forward to dinner.
And if all goes according to plan, more guests will arrive in time for the meal, as a Soyuz rocket carrying three new crew members for the station, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams, is scheduled to lift off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday at 4:27 a.m. Eastern time.
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