Astronauts Share Thanksgiving Dinner Menu From Space
At 408 kilometers from Earth, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) will gather to share a not so traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
The international crew currently on the ISS include NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron; European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer and Russian astronauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.
Barron, Chari, Marshburn and Maurer are members of the SpaceX Crew-3 crew that arrived on the ISS in mid-November.
Astronauts have marked the tradition of celebrating the holidays in space since the days of the Apollo mission, when the Apollo 8 crew shared their Christmas Eve message on a live television broadcast in 1968, taking turns reading the book of Genesis in the Bible. And this Thanksgiving Day will be no exception.
NASA on Wednesday shared a short video from space in which American astronauts told what they usually do during Thanksgiving on Earth, as well as the dinner menu they will share with the international community.
"For me, Thanksgiving has always been about spending time with the people I love the most," said astronaut Barron. For his part, astronaut Vande Hei said that he and his family usually take a table at the entrance of the house because in Houston, Texas, it is hot, unlike other places in the United States where the temperatures on these dates are below 0 degrees Celsius .
"Usually on our family Thanksgiving, we do something where we go around the table and say why we're grateful. So I'll probably call them and do it remotely," said astronaut Chari.
Astronaut Marshburn said that while family and Thanksgiving are some of the things that bring them all together, food is, too. And speaking of food, the astronauts showed off some dishes that they will be sharing over Thanksgiving dinner. On the space menu there will be crab soup, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams and a cranberry and cherry dessert.
The first Thanksgiving in space was celebrated on November 22, 1973, when Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue each ate two meals for dinner. Although there was nothing special on the menu for the occasion. The three worked and supported a spacewalk that lasted six hours and 33 minutes earlier in the day so they missed lunch.
Reading Log
Here are the books HitomiTanaka is currently reading, have already read, and want to read!