NASA astronauts on the International Space Station are planning to have Thanksgiving dinner with some newly arrived guests, just like many people in the United States.
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ISS astronauts (clockwise from upper left) Mike Fincke of NASA, Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman of NASA discuss their Thanksgiving plans in a video posted on Nov. 25, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/JSC)
Four-time NASA spaceflyer Mike Fincke, celebrating his second U.S. Thanksgiving in space after ISS Expedition 18 (which ran from October 2008 to April 2009), said in the video that the ISS crew is already getting food ready for the new arrivals. He showed off turkey and cranberry sauce in front of the camera facing the crew in the crowded Destiny module, where U.S. research primarily takes place.
“This cranberry sauce is actually Russian cranberry, so it’s kind of neat to have that up here because that’s one of my favorite parts,” Fincke said, carefully extracting packets from a plastic bag while the astronauts floated between experiments and laptops attached to the module’s walls. “I’m going to miss my family, of course, but I’m up here with my space family … We’re looking forward to the food up here, and the company.”
“Food is a really important part of everyday life up here, and staying happy and healthy,” added NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, who is on her first spaceflight. “We share a lot of meals, and so this one is just going to be extra special. Our ground teams, and the food lab at NASA, have taken such great care of us that we have a very special food holiday bag here. We’ve got everything from turkey and the traditional things that Mike mentioned [to] some mashed potatoes, to crab meat, salmon. We’ve even got some lobster, which is amazing.”
Aside from the food, Korean-American NASA astronaut Jonny Kim (also on his first mission) said he is looking forward to Thanksgiving as a moment “to kind of pause, and slow down, and reflect on our lives — the people we cherish in our lives, and all the support we’ve had on this journey.”
Two-time spaceflyer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said that there is no Thanksgiving in his home country. But Yui said he will happily celebrate the holiday on Thursday, as is tradition — ISS spaceflyers mark the customs of their international crewmates. And he enjoys how Thanksgiving conveys “respect, and also appreciation to others,” which he called “a very good tradition.”
Also on the ISS are Alexey Zubritsky, Oleg Platonov and Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos. Over the decades of ISS operations, the U.S. and Russian sides of the space station have traditionally had separate scheduling and public relations events. That said, the crews often come together for big tasks in space and share meals, so it is possible the Russians will celebrate Thanksgiving alongside the Americans.
Expedition 73 began in April and is anticipated to complete wrap up later this year; NASA has not yet shared when the U.S.-Japanese crew will return, but it will be sometime after the new arrivals on Soyuz settle into their duties on the orbiting complex.