Thanksgiving Celebrations in Area – NASA

The Thanksgiving vacation usually brings households and associates collectively in a celebration of widespread gratitude for all the nice issues which have occurred in the course of the earlier yr. Individuals have fun the vacation in numerous methods, with parades, soccer marathons, and attending providers, however meals stays the over-arching theme. For astronauts launched into long-duration house missions, separation from household and associates is inevitable they usually depend on fellow crew members to share within the custom and benefit from the culinary traditions as a lot as attainable. 

Over the previous many years, astronauts have celebrated the vacation throughout their time in house in quite a lot of distinctive methods. Benefit from the tales and pictures from orbital Thanksgiving celebrations through the years. 

Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue maintain the excellence as the primary crew to have fun Thanksgiving in house on Nov. 22, 1973. On that day, their seventh of an 84-day mission, Gibson and Pogue accomplished a 6-hour and 33-minute spacewalk, whereas Carr remained within the A number of Docking Adapter, with no entry to meals. All three made up for lacking lunch by consuming two meals at time for supper, though neither included particular objects for Thanksgiving.

Twelve years handed earlier than the subsequent orbital Thanksgiving celebration. On Nov. 28, 1985, the seven-member crew of STS-61B, NASA astronauts Brewster H. Shaw, Bryan D. O’Connor, Jerry L. Ross, Mary L. Cleave, and Sherwood C. “Woody” Spring, and payload specialists Charles D. Walker from the USA and Rodolfo Neri Vela from Mexico, feasted on shrimp cocktail, irradiated turkey, and cranberry sauce aboard the house shuttle Atlantis.

Neri Vela launched tortillas to house menus, they usually have remained favorites amongst astronauts ever since. In contrast to common bread, tortillas don’t create crumbs, a possible hazard in weightlessness, and have a number of makes use of for any meal of the day. The crew of STS-33, NASA astronauts Frederick D. Gregory, John E. Blaha, Manley L. “Sonny” Carter, F. Story Musgrave, and Kathryn C. Thornton, celebrated Thanksgiving aboard house shuttle Discovery in 1989. Gregory and Musgrave celebrated their second Thanksgiving in house two years later, joined by fellow STS-44 NASA astronauts Terrence T. “Tom” Henricks, James S. Voss, Mario Runco, and Thomas J. Hennen aboard house shuttle Atlantis.

In 1996, Blaha celebrated his second Thanksgiving in house with Russian cosmonauts Valeri G. Korzun and Aleksandr Y. Kaleri aboard the house station Mir. Blaha watched the gorgeous Earth by means of the Mir home windows somewhat than his regular viewing fare of soccer. The STS-80 crew of NASA astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, Kent V. Rominger, Tamara E. Jernigan, Thomas D. Jones, and Musgrave, now on his third turkey day vacation in orbit, celebrated Thanksgiving aboard house shuttle Columbia. Though the eight crew members labored in numerous spacecraft in numerous orbits, they exchanged vacation greetings by way of space-to-space radio. This marked the biggest variety of folks in house on Thanksgiving Day as much as that point.

One yr later, NASA astronaut David A. Wolf celebrated Thanksgiving along with his Russian crewmates Anatoli Y. Solovev, who translated the vacation into Russian as den blagodarenia, and Pavel V. Vinogradov aboard Mir. They loved smoked turkey, freeze-dried mashed potatoes, peas, and milk. Additionally in orbit on the time was the crew of STS-87, NASA astronauts Kevin R. Kregel, Steven W. Lindsey, Kalpana Chawla, and Winston E. Scott, Takao Doi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company, and Leonid Ok. Kadenyuk of Ukraine, aboard Columbia. The 9 crew members aboard the 2 spacecraft broke the one-year-old file for the biggest variety of folks in house at one time for Thanksgiving, additionally setting the file for probably the most nations represented, 4.

The Expedition 1 crew of NASA astronaut William M. Shepherd, and Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei Ok. Krikalev of Roscosmos celebrated the primary Thanksgiving aboard the Worldwide Area Station on Nov. 23, 2000, three weeks after their arrival aboard the power. The crew took outing of their busy schedule to take pleasure in ham and smoked turkey and ship phrases of due to folks on the bottom who supplied wonderful help to their flight. Crews have celebrated Thanksgiving in house each November since then.

In 2001, Expedition 3 crew members NASA astronaut Frank L. Culbertson, and Vladimir N. Dezhurov and Mikhail V. Tyurin of Roscosmos loved the primary actual Thanksgiving aboard the house station, full with a cardboard turkey as ornament. The next yr’s orbital Thanksgiving celebration included the biggest variety of folks to that point, the mixed 10 crewmembers of Expedition 5, STS-113, and Expedition 6. After a busy day that included the primary Thanksgiving Day spacewalk from the house station, the crews settled right down to a dinner of smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, and inexperienced beans with mushrooms. Blueberry-cherry cobbler rounded out the meal.

Expedition 18 crew members NASA astronauts E. Michael Fincke and Gregory E. Chamitoff and Yuri V. Lonchakov representing Roscosmos, welcomed the STS-126 crew of NASA astronauts Christopher J. Ferguson, Eric A. Boe, Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Donald R. Pettit, Stephen G. Bowen, R. Shane Kimbrough, and Sandra H. Magnus throughout Thanksgiving in 2008. They dined within the house shuttle Endeavour’s middeck on smoked turkey, candied yams, inexperienced beans and mushrooms, cornbread dressing and a cranapple dessert. 

The next yr noticed the biggest and an internationally various group celebrating Thanksgiving in house. The six Expedition 21 crew members, NASA astronauts Jeffrey N. Williams and Nicole P. Stott, Roman Y. Romanenko and Maksim V. Suraev of Roscosmos, Frank L. DeWinne of the European Area Company, and Robert B. Thirsk of the Canadian Area Company hosted the six members of the STS-129 crew, NASA astronauts Charles O. Hobaugh, Barry E. Wilmore, Michael J. Foreman, Robert L. Satcher, Randolph J. Bresnik, and Leland D. Melvin. The twelve assembled crew members represented the USA, Russia, Belgium, and Canada. The celebration passed off two days early, because the shuttle undocked from the house station on Thanksgiving Day.

We hope you loved these tales and pictures from Thanksgivings celebrated in house. We want to want everybody right here on the bottom and the seven-member crew of Expedition 72 aboard the house station a really Glad Thanksgiving! For NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” E. Wilmore and Donald R. Pettit, it will mark the third time they have fun the vacation in house.