The 4 NASA astronauts at the moment dwelling on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) simply wished all of us all a contented Thanksgiving.
Nick Hague, Don Pettit, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have beamed house a Turkey Day message from their orbital perch, which NASA launched on Wednesday (Nov. 27).
“Greetings from the Worldwide Area Station!” Williams mentioned to open the two-minute video. “Our crew up right here simply wished to say Glad Thanksgiving to all our family and friends who’re down on Earth and everybody who’s supporting us.”
Pettit spoke subsequent, commenting on the separation that he and his colleagues have to be feeling on days like in the present day.
“Thanksgiving is usually a vacation the place household and buddies get collectively,” the astronaut mentioned. “Generally that may’t occur — to bodily be round one another— however in in the present day’s age, you may nearly tie in to your loved ones and buddies.”
He handed the mic to Hague, who took the chance to speak turkey. And I imply that actually: He opened a field of victuals, displaying us the pouches that maintain the astronauts’ Turkey Day feast.
“We have got Brussels —” Hague mentioned.
“There’s sardines!” Pettit interjected.
“Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, apples and spice, and smoked turkey,” Hague continued. “It is going to be scrumptious.”
Wilmore was subsequent. He famous a few of the many issues that he and his crewmates should be glad about.
“I imply, there’s not many locations which you could be which you could truly lay on the ceiling, and that is one in every of them,” Wilmore mentioned. “We’re grateful for zero gravity. It is unbelievable.”
On private stage, the astronauts are grateful for “our household, our buddies — these which might be lifting up prayers for us,” he added. “We’re grateful for a nation that could be a spacefaring nation, that lets us reside free, say what we predict is vital to say and so many different issues. There’s a lot to be glad about on this season.”
The 4 astronauts closed out the video collectively, saying in unison, “Glad Thanksgiving!”
Williams, who instructions the ISS’ present Expedition 72 mission, and Wilmore arrived on the station on June 6, on the first-ever crewed flight of Boeing’s new Starliner capsule.
The duo had been supposed to remain on the orbiting lab for only a week or so, however points with Starliner’s thrusters extended their mission. In the end, NASA determined to convey Starliner again to Earth uncrewed, which occurred in September. Williams and Wilmore will come house in February with Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. (Hague and Gorbunov arrived on the ISS in late September, on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.)
Pettit got here to the ISS on Sept. 11 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which additionally ferried cosmonauts Oleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.
