Happy Thanksgiving from space! NASA astronauts beam home Turkey Day message (video) (Image Credit: Space.com)
The four NASA astronauts currently living on the International Space Station (ISS) just wished all of us all a happy Thanksgiving.
Nick Hague, Don Pettit, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have beamed home a Turkey Day message from their orbital perch, which NASA released on Wednesday (Nov. 27).
“Greetings from the International Space Station!” Williams said to open the two-minute video. “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.”
Pettit spoke next, commenting on the separation that he and his colleagues must be feeling on days like today.
“Thanksgiving is typically a holiday where family and friends get together,” the astronaut said. “Sometimes that can’t happen — to physically be around each other— but in today’s age, you can virtually tie in to your family and friends.”
He handed the mic to Hague, who took the opportunity to talk turkey. And I mean that literally: He opened a box of victuals, showing us the pouches that hold the astronauts’ Turkey Day feast.
“We’ve got Brussels —” Hague said.
“There’s sardines!” Pettit interjected.
“Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, apples and spice, and smoked turkey,” Hague continued. “It’s going to be delicious.”
Wilmore was next. He noted some of the many things that he and his crewmates have to be thankful for.
“I mean, there’s not many places that you can be that you can actually lay on the ceiling, and this is one of them,” Wilmore said. “We’re thankful for zero gravity. It’s fantastic.”
On personal level, the astronauts are thankful for “our family, our friends — those that are lifting up prayers for us,” he added. “We’re grateful for a nation that is a spacefaring nation, that lets us live free, say what we think is important to say and so many other things. There’s so much to be thankful for in this season.”
The four astronauts closed out the video together, saying in unison, “Happy Thanksgiving!”
Williams, who commands the ISS’ current Expedition 72 mission, and Wilmore arrived at the station on June 6, on the first-ever crewed flight of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule.
The duo were supposed to stay on the orbiting lab for just a week or so, but issues with Starliner’s thrusters prolonged their mission. Ultimately, NASA decided to bring Starliner back to Earth uncrewed, which happened in September. Williams and Wilmore will come home in February with Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. (Hague and Gorbunov arrived at the ISS in late September, on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.)
Pettit came to the ISS on Sept. 11 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which also ferried cosmonauts Oleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.
