14 DAY TRIAL // Since the specialists have not perfected the ways of packing, transporting, cooking and using foods and drinks in space, the dinner for the combined crews of the International Space Station and the spacecraft Endeavour was the next best thing. Although the farthest thing from the traditional meals common back on Earth since 1621, the ten astronauts were not disappointed. Celebrating Thanksgiving in space is a relatively young habit, but that did not make it less impressive.
"We're very fortunate to be up here in space. The only thing that would make it better is to be with our families," shared astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper, quoted by Space. "For everyone on Earth, I just hope everyone will have as nice of a Thanksgiving as we will." The Harmony module, the front-door module connecting the station's three laboratories was chosen as the dining room for the event. The astronauts were also spoiled by NASA with the song "Hold on Tight" by Eclectic Light Orchestra.
STS-126 mission specialist Stephen Bowen gave more details about the food, "They sent us up with enough meals for the shuttle crew for Thanksgiving, with turkey and cornbread dressing, a cranberry dessert, and candied yams, and... green bean casserole. Since then, we've been kind of collecting food now that we're going to be here with the ISS crew, and now we are going to have enough food for everybody onboard, which is part of Thanksgiving anyway, sharing what you have."
"It may be called space food, but it is actually very good," argued Endeavour's commander Chris Ferguson. "A lot of it is thermostabilized, a lot of the meals come from the military and it's food like you and I enjoy at home. I'm from the Navy and I like Navy food, and I enjoy space food as well."
They will have normal tea, sweetened with sugar, to quench their thirst, since the water provided by the purifier that they brought to the ISS has not been approved for drinking yet. "The NASA engineers don't want us to drink any of it right now. We're taking all the samples back home for analysis," explained Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit. "We're going to get a number of weeks running on the machine before they're going to bless the operation for human consumption. And I think that's the smart thing to do."