Thanksgiving In Space: How Astronauts Celebrate It 17,500 Miles Away From Home
19th Nov 2024
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for bringing family and friends together, expressing gratitude for so many good things that have happened over the past year. Naturally, we picture it happening in the warm and cosy atmosphere of home – around the family table, on the comfortable sofa, or gathered in the garden.
But what about celebrating Thanksgiving in space? Imagine being in the sleek, metallic surroundings of a station far away from your nearest and dearest. Let’s explore how astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) celebrate Thanksgiving, what they eat and how they spend time in orbit.
Thanksgiving Feast in Space
People around the world celebrate this holiday in various ways, with football marathons, attending religious services, but food remains the most important ritual of Thanksgiving celebration. Believe it or not, it’s the same in space.
Astronauts come together in the galley area for a shared meal, which usually includes traditional Thanksgiving foods modified for space travel.
NASA provides “space food” versions of traditional dishes – turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and even cranberry sauce. All in dehydrated or vacuum-sealed packets, which the astronauts rehydrate and warm up in a special heater. In this video, NASA explains how to prepare food in space.
How Did It Start?
The Skylab 4 astronauts were the first to celebrate Thanksgiving in space 51 year ago. On 22 November 1973, Ed Gibson and Bill Pogue completed a 6.5-hour spacewalk, missing lunch. The crew made up for it by having two meals for dinner. Crews have celebrated Thanksgiving in space every November since then.
In Photos: Thanksgiving Aboard ISS
Let’s enjoy some photos of Thanksgiving celebrations over the years.
The year 2009 saw the largest and an internationally diverse group celebrating Thanksgiving in space. The twelve assembled crew members represented the United States, Russia, Belgium, and Canada. The celebration took place two days early, since the shuttle undocked from the space station on Thanksgiving Day.
In 2011, three astronauts onboard an ISS had cherry-blueberry cobbler for dessert. Sounds delicious!
In 2016, NASA even shared a recipe of a cornbread dressing, so that every person on Earth could prepare a meal similar to what astronauts eat on the ISS.
In 2020, the Thanksgiving menu included cornbread dressing, smoked turkey, green beans and mashed potatoes. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi brought some Japanese “party food” to share, including curry rice, red bean rice and some special seafood that a Japanese high school student on Earth prepared for the crew.
In 2023, SpaceX even delivered some holiday goodies to the astrounats aboard ISS. Have you even seen something as cute as this?
What will the celebration look like this year? What will be on the Thanksgiving menu this year? On 5 November 2024 the CRS-31 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. This commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station will deliver supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory for NASA. The Thanksgiving goodies are also included in the cargo! The mission has not reached its destination yet, so we’ll update you on festive dishes the astronauts will enjoy this Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving in Space: Traditions and Activities
No doubt, Thanksgiving dinner is the most important part of the celebration. These meals help astronauts feel connected to traditions back home, even while they’re 17,500 miles above Earth. During the meal, crew members usually share stories and express gratitude.
Crew members are also trying to create a special festive mood, decorating the station locations with Thanksgiving-themed decorations.
Sometimes astronauts put on full-on festive clothes, so that Thanksgiving in space would feel more special and fun.
After dinner and dessert, the astronauts may watch some football. As with many U.S. families on Earth, it is customary for astronauts to watch NFL games on Thanksgiving.
While astronauts can’t join their families in person, they often take time to record video messages to loved ones or hold video calls if possible. Sometimes, astronauts simply want to take a few moments to unwind from their duties – enjoying a bit of fun with zero gravity and snapping some photos.
And one of the most important Thanksgiving traditions is recording a video message for the whole planet. In this message astronauts talk about what Thanksgiving means for them, how they will celebrate this year, and what they are grateful for. These video messages are published on NASA Johnson YouTube Channel.
A Cosmic Turkey Trot
There is a fun fact about Thanksgiving traditions on the ISS.
As you may know, exercise is an important part of human research on the ISS. Astronauts are equipped with special tools and clothes to collect vital medical information for several studies looking at the effects of living in microgravity on the cardiovascular system. To stay healthy during their months of time in microgravity, astronauts need to do exercises 90 minutes to two hours. But to make things fun, traditionally International Space Station crews call their Thanksgiving treadmill time a “turkey trot” – like footraces, usually of the long-distance variety, held on Thanksgiving in the United States.
In 2021, NASA astronaut Raja Chari made a special surprise for the crew members – coloured headbands for the crew to wear, as the astronauts will still need to exercise. He joked that the exercise would allow them to run off the calories of a Thanksgiving meal, which included delicacies such as crab bisque, candied yams and cherry blueberry cobbler, along with the turkey.
What Are The Astronauts Thankful For?
Gazing down at the planet from above, literally from a different perspective, offers a unique opportunity to reflect on what truly matters in life and on the essence of gratitude. So far away from the usual life, from the beloved ones, astronauts undoubtedly miss their families and friends. Yet, they stay positive, cherishing and giving thanks for the many significant things in their lives.
Seems that over the years the atmosphere on the ISS is very friendly and warm, so astronauts feel almost at home, among friends.
“I think being any place where you’re surrounded by friends really makes Thanksgiving special,” NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei said during the 2017 Thanksgiving celebration. “We certainly have that going on up here.”
That same year, NASA astronaut Joe Acaba said in a video message: “I think we have a lot to be thankful for – the opportunity to be here [and] great families that support us being up here, so I think that part of Thanksgiving is not going to change.”
In 2021, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei said in a NASA video that he is thankful for his crewmates, “It’s wonderful having all of these folks up here. We haven’t been up here together that long, but, wow, it sure has been wonderful already.”
“For me, Thanksgiving is all about family,” Michael S. Hopkins said in a Thanksgiving 2021 message from the International Space Station. “This year, I’m spending it with my international family. We all feel very blessed to be up here and we’re very grateful for everything we have.”
In a video message flight engineer Jasmin Moghbeli said: “This year onboard the International Space Station, we’re thankful for many things, one of which is our unique vantage point looking back at our beautiful home planet Earth. We get to see it in a very unique way and see how special and beautiful it is. It’s a reminder to us that, while everyone we know and love is back home on Earth, we need to protect it and take care of it.”
Even so far away from home, in orbit, astronauts strive to capture the cosiness of Thanksgiving. They enjoy traditional meals, decorate the space station, express gratitude to one another, to friends and family and to the whole planet. This effort ensures that Thanksgiving in space feels meaningful and not lonely.
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