As well as the traditional Thanksgiving fare, NASA astronauts on the International Space Station will enjoy clams, smoked salmon and lobster. NASA webcast <\/p>\n
NASA webcast<\/p>\n
About 250 miles above the Earth, NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) will enjoy an off-duty day for Thanksgiving, along with a group meal that features some celebratory foods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my second Thanksgiving in space, so I highly recommend it,\u201d said Mike Fincke<\/a>, in a video message<\/a> beamed down from the outpost.<\/p>\n This fall, NASA included a \u201cHoliday Bulk Overwrapped Bag,\u201d or BOB, on a resupply mission that went up to the station. The bag contained festive items like clams, oysters, crab meat, quail, and smoked salmon.<\/p>\n \u201cOur ground teams and the food lab at NASA have taken such great care of us,\u201d said Zena Cardman<\/a>, who noted that they\u2019ll also have traditional fare like turkey and mashed potatoes, all packaged up in ways that won\u2019t cause a mess in microgravity. \u201cWe\u2019ve even got some lobster, which is amazing. So I think it\u2019s going to be a really, really delicious meal.\u201d<\/p>\n Fincke displayed a can of cranberry sauce, which happened to come from the Russian space agency.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of neat to have that up here because that\u2019s one of my favorite parts,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss my family, of course. But I\u2019m up here with my space family and it\u2019s really awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n Cardman and Fincke, along with fellow NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, will share their holiday meal with three Russian cosmonauts and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have Thanksgiving in Japan, but here, on ISS, everybody respects each other\u2019s culture,\u201d said Yui, who added that he was looking forward to the dinner.<\/p>\n And if all goes as planned, more guests will arrive in time for the meal, because a Soyuz rocket with three new crew members for the station, including NASA astronaut Chris Williams, is scheduled to<\/a> blast off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:27 am Eastern time on Thursday.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t