ISS astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving in outer space

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren released a video explaining how they celebrated Thanksgiving up in the International Space Station (ISS), 400 kilometres from the surface of the Earth. Aside from having dinner in outer space, Thanksgiving here on Earth and in zero gravity are not so different after all.

In a YouTube post, viewers can see how dehydrated food is taken out from an air-tight package to be filled with hot water. After setting it aside while it completely rehydrated, the meal was ready to be enjoyed.

The US astronauts showed what their feast consisted of. These were candied yams, rehydratable corn and of course, smoked turkey. The meals have not changed since the first Thanksgiving was celebrated on the ISS in 2000. NASA spokesperson Dan Huot told Space.com that astronauts could have extra food sent up as special-request items however, none have tried doing it yet.

On their day off, the astronauts relaxed and watched some football in the afternoon. Other astronauts aboard the space station are Kimiya Yui, cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Volkov, all of whom joined Kelly and Lindgren for dinner.

“Being on the space station here and looking down at our incredibly beautiful planet gives us a different perspective on what it means to be citizens of planet Earth," said Kelly, who will be staying until his mission ends on March 2016. “It just makes us really thankful to live in a country like the United States that provides us with freedom and opportunity."

“We just wanted to wish you a very warm and happy Thanksgiving," said Lindgren, who will come back to earth on Dec 11. "We are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be up here on the International Space Station, working and living in this amazing orbiting laboratory.”

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