Aboard the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, both Expedition 38 flight engineers, send down their best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving.
Six crew members will enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner floating aboard the International Space Station in orbit 260mi above Earth. Their menu will include traditional holiday favorites with a space-food flair, such as irradiated smoked turkey, thermo-stabilized yams, and freeze-dried green beans. The crew's meal also will feature NASA's cornbread dressing, home-style potatoes, cranberries, cherry-blueberry cobbler and the best view from any Thanksgiving table.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio will celebrate the American holiday with their Expedition 38 colleagues Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Oleg Kotov, Mikhail Tyurin, and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency. The six men are conducting about 200 research experiments and scientific investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASA food scientist Vickie Kloeris has been involved in space food development and production since 1985. She has managed the space station food system since January 2000 and is responsible for every aspect of the station's food system including all U.S. flight food shipments and new food item development. She also manages the food systems laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA is researching and developing ways to extend the shelf-life of food needed for deep space missions, and how to minimize the volume of packaging. The agency also is using the International Space Station as a laboratory to learn how to grow plants in space.
Source: NASA