
A meal between astronauts on the International Space Station
The Astronaut Fred Gregory tells us how does a spatial Thanksgiving dinner look like. He was between the first astronauts who celebrated Thanksgiving in space, sharing his joy with millions of stars.
He shared his experience on his blog and he said it has been the best Thanksgiving meal ever.
This guy is a retired Colonel USAF, NASA astronaut and Deputy Administrator and a former test pilot.
First time he spend Thanksgiving in space was on the orbiter Discovery 26 years ago and the second time was on Atlantis orbiter 2 years after.
How does a spatial Thanksgiving dinner look like?
Well, it looks dry. The turkey is served in plastic tubes and is thermo-stabilized, you have few bites of pumpkin bread to avoid crumbs disperse in zero gravity, the baked potatoes or broccoli sides comes in cans or pouches.
The spatial Thanksgiving dishes were totally different from the dishes served on Earth without table setting, decoration, juicy turkey with cranberry sauce or a delicious apple pie.
It is missing the family atmosphere and the drinks but even so, this grateful feast is a good opportunity to appreciate what you have, especially your health.
In space, you are not able to realize the time passing because everything is set on the second say, Fred Gregory.
Usually, they didn’t take a seat when they were about to eat because they were more focused on accomplishing the tasks, so they let the dried food float next to them and they just grabbed the slices.
During that particular day, Fred and the crew organized more efficiently the tasks they had in order to enjoy the time they spent eating together. A special live transmission has given them the opportunity to spend time with their families on the Discovery’s main deck.
They piled the food onto metal meal trays, they blessed the meal and their families before they started eating and telling stories about traditions and favorite Thanksgiving feasts from Terra.
Image source: www.wikipedia.org
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