NASA’s astronauts, Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren gave a quick look at their holiday feasts from the International Space Station, including their “traditional” space meal for Thanksgiving.
Scott Kelly –who is finishing his one year mission– and Kjell Lindgren, along with Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, will enjoy a vacation day on their 250-mile-high research. In order to celebrate the season, they sent a video showing what they are thankful for, and showing their Thanksgiving dinner.
For their day off, this Thursday, the astronauts will relax and catch some football in the late afternoon. Although the Russian cosmonauts won’t have their day off, they will all gather for the Thanksgiving meal together.
“We are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be up here on the global Space Station, working and living in this fantastic orbing laboratory”, and seizing the occasion, he also said “I’m personally thankful for my friends and family, especially my wife and children, and I’m looking forward to seeing them here soon,” added Lindgren on the video, according to CBS News.
The astronauts thanked God to live in a prosperous and peaceful area like the U.S., a place where they said that human rights continue to exist. Pointing towards the Earth, they mentioned they follow the news, referring to all the conflicts that were happening in some unstable regions of the country. They said they are thankful for living in a country that provides them with “freedom and opportunity”.
To conclude the video, Kelly and Lindgren showed their Thanksgiving plate, and taking certain articles of the packaging, Kelly took a bite of candied yams, as Lindgren chewed a piece of smoked turkey. Between jokes, Lindgren told Kelly that he should enjoy his dinner, as turkey isn’t a common food in spaceflights.
The first Thanksgiving in space took place in 1973 in the US space station Skylab, and for 2000, it was held for the first time in the ISS. According to Space.com, Dan Huot, a NASA spokesman, said the food has been refrigerated there since the beginning of the ISS, including smoked turkey, candied yams, corn and rehydrated gratin potatoes.
Source: CBS News