Over the past decades, astronauts have celebrated the holiday in a variety of unique ways during their time in space. Enjoy stories and photos of Orbital Thanksgiving celebrations over the years.
Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue hold the distinction of being the first crew to celebrate Thanksgiving in space on November 22, 1973. On that day, the seventh of their 84-day mission, Gibson and Pogue completed a spacewalk of 6 hours and 33 minutes, while the car remained in multiple dockings. Adapter, without food access. All three made up for the lack of lunch by eating a two-course meal at dinnertime, although special items for Thanksgiving were not included.
Twelve years passed before the next Orbital Thanksgiving celebration. On November 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 the payload Experts Charles D. Walker and Rodolfo Nerivilla from Mexico feasted on crab cocktail, irradiated turkey, and cranberry sauce aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.
Neri Vela introduced tortillas to the space menu, and they’ve been a favorite among astronauts ever since. Unlike regular bread, tortillas don’t become crumbly, which is a potential risk for weight loss, and have multiple uses for any meal of the day. The STS-33 crew, NASA astronauts Frederick D. Gregory, John E. Blaha, Manley L. “Sonny” Carter, F. Story Musgrave, and Kathryn C. Thornton, celebrated Thanksgiving aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1989. Gregory and Musgrave celebrated their second Thanksgiving in space two years later, along with fellow STS-44 NASA astronauts Terrence T. “Tom” Henricks, James S. Voss, Mario Runco, and Thomas J. Hennen aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.
In 1996, Blaha celebrated his second Thanksgiving in space with Russian astronauts Valery G. Korzen and Alexander Y. Kaleri aboard the space station Mir. Instead of watching his usual soccer game, Blaha looked out at the beautiful land through the windows. The STS-80 crew of NASA astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, Kent V. Rominger, Tamara E. Jernigan, Thomas D. Jones, and Musgrave, now on their third turkey day off in orbit, launched the space shuttle Columbia. I celebrated Thanksgiving. Although the eight crew members worked in different spacecraft in different orbits, they exchanged holiday greetings by radio from space to space. It marked the largest number of people in space on Thanksgiving Day to date.
A year later, NASA astronaut David A. Wolff celebrated Thanksgiving with his Russian crewmate Anatoly Y. Solov, who translated the holiday into Russian. den blagodarenia, And Pavel V. Vinogradov was aboard Mir. They enjoyed smoked turkey, freeze-dried mashed potatoes, peas and milk. Also in orbit at the time were the STS-87 crew, NASA astronauts Kevin R. Krigel, Steven W. Lindsay, Kalpana Chawla, and Winston E. Scott, Takao Doi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Leonid K. Kadiniuk. Aboard the Ukraine, Colombia. Nine crew members aboard two spacecraft broke the year-old record for the most people in space at one time for Thanksgiving, and also set the record for the most countries represented by four people.
NASA astronaut William M. Shepherd, and the Expedition 1 crew of Roscosmos Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev celebrated the first Thanksgiving aboard the International Space Station on November 23, 2000, three weeks after their arrival at the facility. . The crew took time out of their busy schedules to enjoy ham and smoked turkey and thank the people on the ground who provided excellent support during their flight. Since then, the crew has celebrated Thanksgiving in space every November.
In 2001, Expedition 3 crew members NASA astronaut Frank L. Culbertson, and Roscosmos’ Vladimir N. Dezhurov and Mikhail V. Tyurin enjoyed the first real Thanksgiving aboard the space station, with cardboard turkeys as decorations. was complete with The following year’s orbital Thanksgiving celebration included the largest number of people up to that time, the combined 10 crews of Expedition 5, STS-113, and Expedition 6. After a busy day that included the first Thanksgiving Day spacewalk from the space station, I sat down to a meal of smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans with mushrooms. A 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, NASA astronauts Christopher J. Ferguson, Eric A. Bow, Heidemarie M. Stephanie P., Donald K. STS- Welcomed the staff of 126. R. Pettit, Stephen G. Bowen, R. Shane Kimbrough, and Sandra H. Magnus during Thanksgiving 2008. They dined on smoked turkey, candied yams, green beans and mushrooms, cornbread dressing, and cranberry dessert in the middeck of Space Shuttle Endeavour.
The following year saw the largest and most internationally diverse group celebrating Thanksgiving in space. Six members of the Expedition 21 crew, NASA astronauts Geoffrey N. Williams and Nicole P. Stout, Roman Y. Romanenko and Maxim V. Soraev of Roscosmos, Frank L. DeWin of the European Space Agency, and Robert B. Thirsk of Canadian Space. The agency hosted six of the STS-129 crew members, NASA astronauts. Charles O. Hobaugh, Barry E. Wilmore, Michael J. Foreman, Robert L. Satcher, Randolph J. Bresnik, and Leland D. Melvin. Twelve crew members represented the United States, Russia, Belgium and Canada. The celebration took place two days before the shuttle lifted off from the space station on Thanksgiving Day.
We hope you enjoy these stories and photos of Thanksgiving in Space. We’d like to wish everyone here on Earth and the seven-member Expedition 72 crew aboard the space station a Happy Thanksgiving! For NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” E. Wilmore and Donald R. Pettit, this will be their third vacation in space.