Thanksgiving, an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada, is celebrated to express gratitude for the year's blessings. The holiday has roots in the 1621 harvest feast shared by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people and has become a tradition of togetherness and thankfulness. One of the cherished traditions of the day is Thanksgiving dinner, where loved ones come together to share a delicious meal. Key components of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner include roasted turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pies like pumpkin pie for dessert.
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This year, Thanksgiving celebrations will not be restricted to the terrestrial realm. Even astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be able to mark the occasion in their own way. The ISS crew members will enjoy a holiday feast featuring clams, oysters, crab meat, quail, and smoked salmon, accompanied by various sides and trimmings.
According to Mark Marquette, museum director with the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation, this diverse and indulgent Thanksgiving menu holds significant psychological value for astronauts who endure months of isolation while orbiting approximately 250 miles above the Earth's surface.
"Good old comfort food. And this is what I think Thanksgiving represents in space," Marquette said.
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"You're getting back to the comfort food of Earth. You're trying to replicate Grandma's green-bean casserole and delicious stuffing. And I think that this brings a sense of humanity to people in a way that food, or gastronomy, appeases people. I think the comfort-food aspect of it is a real benefit to your psychological world of living in outer space," he added.
The menu items for the astronauts' Thanksgiving feast launched into space on September 14 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The NG-23 mission successfully propelled a Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft, which docked with the International Space Station four days later.
On Thursday, 27 November, at 4:27 AM EST, a new NASA astronaut embarked on the journey aboard a Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After two orbits around Earth, the spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS at around 7:38 AM. The hatch is scheduled to open at 10:10 AM.