The Thanksgiving vacation usually brings friends and families together in an event of typical thankfulness for all the good ideas that have actually taken place throughout the previous year. Individuals commemorate the vacation in different methods, with parades, football marathons, and going to services, however food stays the over-arching style. For astronauts started long-duration area objectives, separation from friends and family is inescapable and they count on fellow team members to share in the custom and take pleasure in the cooking customs as much as possible.
Over the previous years, astronauts have actually commemorated the vacation throughout their time in area in a range of distinct methods. Take pleasure in the stories and photos from orbital Thanksgiving events throughout the years.
Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue hold the difference as the very first team to commemorate Thanksgiving in area on Nov. 22, 1973. On that day, their seventh of an 84-day objective, Gibson and Pogue finished a 6-hour and 33-minute spacewalk, while Carr stayed in the Multiple Docking Adapter, without any access to food. All 3 offseted missing out on lunch by taking in 2 meals at supper time, although neither consisted of unique products for Thanksgiving.
Twelve years passed before the next orbital Thanksgiving event. On Nov. 28, 1985, the seven-member team of STS-61B, NASA astronauts Brewster H. Shaw, Bryan D. O’Connor, Jerry L. Ross, Mary L. Cleave, and Sherwood C. “Woody” Spring, and payload experts Charles D. Walker from the United States and Rodolfo Neri Vela from Mexico, delighted in shrimp mixed drink, irradiated turkey, and cranberry sauce aboard the area shuttle bus Atlantis.
Neri Vela presented tortillas to area menus, and they have actually stayed favorites amongst astronauts since. Unlike routine bread, tortillas do not produce crumbs, a possible threat in weightlessness, and have several usages for any meal of the day. The team of STS-33, NASA astronauts Frederick D. Gregory, John E. Blaha, Manley L. “Sonny” Carter, F. Story Musgrave, and Kathryn C. Thornton, commemorated Thanksgiving aboard area shuttle bus Discovery in 1989. Gregory and Musgrave commemorated their 2nd Thanksgiving in area 2 years later on, signed up with by fellow STS-44 NASA astronauts Terrence T. “Tom” Henricks, James S. Voss, Mario Runco, and Thomas J. Hennen aboard area shuttle bus Atlantis.
In 1996, Blaha commemorated his 2nd Thanksgiving in area with Russian cosmonauts Valeri G. Korzun and Aleksandr Y. Kaleri aboard the spaceport station Mir. Blaha saw the lovely Earth through the Mir windows instead of his normal watching fare of football. The STS-80 team of NASA astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, Kent V. Rominger, Tamara E. Jernigan, Thomas D. Jones, and Musgrave, now on his 3rd turkey day vacation in orbit, commemorated Thanksgiving aboard area shuttle bus Columbia. The 8 team members worked in various spacecraft in various orbits, they exchanged vacation greetings by means of space-to-space radio. This marked the biggest variety of individuals in area on Thanksgiving Day as much as that time.
One year later on, NASA astronaut David A. Wolf commemorated Thanksgiving with his Russian crewmates Anatoli Y.