While most Americans will be gathering around the table to celebrate this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will also be continuing a long tradition of celebrating from orbit.
“Our crew up here just wanted to say happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family who are down on Earth, and everyone who is supporting us,” said NASA Expedition 72 crew member Suni Williams, who appeared alongside astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit in a video message they delivered from the ISS earlier this week.
“Thanksgiving is typically a holiday where family and friends get together,” said Wilmore during the video. “Sometimes that can’t happen to physically be around each other. But today’s age, you can virtually tie in to your family and friends,” Wilmore added.
“One of those big traditions is having a Thanksgiving meal together, and so we’re going to celebrate that tradition up here,” Hague said during the video message. Williams, Wilmore, Petit, and Hague count among the many astronauts who have spent time in space on the American holiday that commemorates the Pilgrim’s harvest festival first celebrated in 1621.
“For astronauts embarked on long-duration space missions, separation from family and friends is inevitable and they rely on fellow crew members to share in the tradition and enjoy the culinary traditions as much as possible,” reads a NASA FAQ page on astronaut Thanksgiving traditions.
So how do astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving aboard the space station, and what’s it like to enjoy a holiday meal in the absence of gravity to keep the gravy from floating away? Let’s look at a few of the items on this year’s Thanksgiving menu on the ISS, as well as the science of eating in space, and what past celebrations in orbit have involved.
The Subtle Science of Dining in Space
Astronauts pretty much already have dining in space down to a science. Food is prepared at NASA’s Space Food Systems Lab, where it is dehydrated and packaged in plastic packets prior to being carried into orbit, and ultimately delivered to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Once it arrives at the ISS, all meal ingredients must be rehydrated after being delivered to orbit, which can take up to a half an hour for most meals. Once the food is prepared, fabric fasteners are used to attach individual containers holding various sides and main dishes onto a larger food tray, which is either fastened to some portion of the ISS, or even to the astronauts themselves.
Fortunately, Thanksgiving dinner will be a little nicer than the average rations served aboard the space station. For instance, last November, a delivery aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft carried a special holiday meal for the Expedition 70 crew, which included Thanksgiving standards like turkey and duck, as well as favorite side dishes that included cranberry sauce, as well as a variety of other dishes that include seafood, Mediterranean fare, and even ingredients for pumpkin spice coffees and deserts.
An Orbital Holiday Tradition
Thanksgiving celebrations in space are nothing new; they mark a unique tradition that astronauts have observed for many decades.
The first Thanksgiving in space was celebrated by Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue in November 1973. Although the men enjoyed a hearty double-meal after missing lunch due to a 6.5 hour spacewalk undertaken earlier that day, there were no special dishes provided in observance of the holiday like astronauts receive today.
The next Thanksgiving celebration in orbit would not transpire for another twelve years, until the seven-member crew of STS-61B enjoyed irradiated turkey and cranberry sauce, along with shrimp cocktail, while on board the space shuttle Atlantis in 1985. Four years later, the STS-33 crew would celebrate Thanksgiving aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Two years later in 1991, Fred Gregory and Story Musgrave, who had both been on the STS-33 mission in 1989, celebrated their second Thanksgiving from orbit, this time aboard the space shuttle Atlantis along with the rest of the STS-44 crew.
Subsequent Thanksgiving celebrations ensued in space in 1996, when astronaut John Blaha joined several Russian cosmonauts aboard the space station Mir, while his fellow American astronauts with the STS-80 crew dined aboard the space shuttle Columbia. Although they were on separate spacecraft at the time, Blaha and the STS-80 astronauts exchanged holiday greetings via radio, and together achieved what, at the time, was a new record for the number of Americans simultaneously celebrating Thanksgiving in space.
The following year, that record was broken when David Wolf, also celebrating Thanksgiving from space alongside his Russian cosmonaut crew, helped to round out the even larger American crew of STS-87, with a combined total of nine Americans celebrating in orbit that year. Similar celebrations carried on into the 2000s, with meal options improving significantly over time to include items like candied yams, cornbread, green beans, and a variety of deserts worthy of Thanksgiving spreads generally only seen on Earth.
The tradition has continued right up to today, with the celebratory meal items delivered to the ISS for Expedition 72’s crew to enjoy this year from their orbit approximately 250 miles above Earth.
“We’ve got a container here of all the things we’re going to enjoy on Thanksgiving,” Hague said during this week’s Thanksgiving message from the ISS. “It is a feast,” he said, revealing brussels sprouts, butternut squash, smoked turkey, and other items he and the other members of Expedition 72 will be enjoying together this holiday.
“It’s going to be delicious!” Hague added.
Wherever you may find yourself this holiday, and whether that’s in space, or here on Earth, we here at The Debrief wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving, and a wonderful holiday season.
A version of this article previously appeared in 2023 in an installment of The Intelligence Brief newsletter.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.