14 DAY TRIAL // Today, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle Atlantis, both currently in space, will pause for a moment from their daily activities, to celebrate Thanksgiving in microgravity. Twelve crew members are in space at this time, seven on the shuttle, and five on the orbital laboratory, Space reports. The break comes as Atlantis is on track for a Friday touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Cape Canaveral, Florida. On the station, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams replaced ESA's Frank de Winne as the Commander of the current mission.
To honor the fact that the shuttle crew will spend this holiday in space, the American agency replaced the regular icon representing Atlantis on Mission Control's screens with one showing a turkey. The spacecraft has spent more than a week docked to the ISS, delivering 15 tons of cargo, from its cargo bay to both internal and external compartments on the international research lab. Three spacewalks were also performed in the meantime, during which astronauts installed two new antennas, an oxygen tanks, and also prepared neighboring compartments for the arrival of Node 3, nicknamed Tranquility, in February 2010.
The STS-129 flew to orbit carrying six astronauts as opposed to the usual seven, but returns home carrying a full load. Nicole Stott, a former flight engineer on the ISS, is being ferried back home to Earth. She is the last astronaut that, according to the current launch manifest, will be taken home from the station aboard a shuttle. From now on, NASA says, all the remaining five spaceflight will be in charge with finishing constructing the space station. The football field-sized facility is currently about 86 percent complete, the agency estimates.
“As we fly high over planet Earth during this holiday season, we have the privilege of sharing a global variety of delicacies with our station crewmates from Russia, Canada and Belgium,” says the ISS Commander from low-Earth orbit. Other crew members now include DeWinne, Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Maxim Suraev, and Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk. “Unfortunately we don't get to make green bean casserole, but this is about the next best thing,” Stott said. The astronauts had cauliflower and cheese, creamed spinach, fruit cocktail, and spicy green beans for the holiday.