This
story was updated at 10:25 a.m. EST.
A dozen
astronauts in orbit took a break from their orbital work Thursday to celebrate
a weightless Thanksgiving, despite the fact that they're flying on two
different spaceships.
The shuttle
Atlantis, with seven crewmembers onboard, left the International Space Station
early Wednesday, capping off a week-long
visit to stock the outpost with spare equipment. The orbiter is slated to
land Friday morning at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In honor of
the American Thanksgiving
holiday, NASA replaced the shuttle's icon with a traditional turkey image
on its Mission Control map tracking the spacecraft around Earth. The shuttle
astronauts can choose from their normal space menus, or select from NASA's
traditional meal of irradiated turkey with cornbread dressing, green beans and
candied yams. The five people on the station also took the day off for the U.S.
holiday.
"Thanksgiving
to me has not always been not about the food you eat, but the company you keep
and I'm keeping some outstanding company here," said Atlantis commander Charlie
"Scorch" Hobaugh in a series of televised interviews today. "I can't wait to
see my family when I get back and have a Thanksgiving meal with them a little
late, but in the meantime I've got a great group of friends and I'm thankful
for that."
With
Hobaugh on Atlantis are shuttle pilot Barry "Butch" Wilmore and
mission specialists Randy Bresnik, Leland Melvin, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher,
Jr. and Nicole Stott. Stott is returning home on Atlantis after nearly three
months living and working on the space station. The astronauts recorded a special
holiday message for Earth from the flight deck of Atlantis.
Bresnik is
especially thankful to be heading home. His wife Rebecca gave birth to their
new daughter Abigail - the couple's second child - on Saturday while he was in
space.
"I can't
imagine anybody wanting to miss their daughter's birth, but hopefully when she's
older she'll forgive me for being absent," Bresnik said.
The new astronaut-dad
said he felt lucky he would get to meet his new baby girl just a week after her
arrival. Many military personnel deployed around the world don't get that
chance.
"On this
Thanksgiving, we've got to remember the military folks who are deployed around
the world," said Bresnik, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. "Our thanks today
goes to them for the service that they give, especially those who are not able
to be home to see their children right away."
Hobaugh's shuttle
crew left behind five colleagues on the station led by NASA astronaut and new
commander Jeffrey Williams, who took
the helm Tuesday. Along with him on the orbital laboratory are European
Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and
Maxim Suraev, and Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk.
"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," Williams said.
He and Stott
made a video to show some of the space food they'd be eating on Thanksgiving,
including cauliflower and cheese, creamed spinach, fruit cocktail, and spicy
green beans. The space station and the shuttle Atlantis can be easily spotted
in the night sky this weekend to some viewers on Earth.
"Unfortunately
we don't get to make green bean casserole, but this is about the next best
thing," Stott said. "During this holiday season we of course miss our
families and our friends back home, but we're enjoying every minute of our
adventure."
Stott has a
husband and a young son in Houston. She said she's looking forward to seeing
them again, as well as having a drink of Coca Cola and a New York-Style pizza
after she lands. Stott's crewmates will set up a special recumbent chair for
her on the middeck of Atlantis. The seat will allow Stott to return to Earth in
a reclined position to better adjust to feeling the tug of Earth's gravity for
the first time in months.
The Atlantis
astronauts plan a relatively quiet day in space, spent doing final packing and
checkouts for landing, slated for Friday at 9:44 a.m. EST (1444 GMT).
SPACE.com
is providing complete coverage of Atlantis' STS-129 mission to the
International Space Station with Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz and Managing
Editor Tariq Malik. Click here
for shuttle mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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