Astronauts celebrate July 4 in space and pay honor to Houston

As usual, the pan-American celebrations of July 4 reached into orbit, this year with a tribute to Houston.

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines, both working as a part of Expedition 67 on the International Space Station, sent a message wishing their compatriots on Earth a happy Independence Day.

"Let's celebrate together. Happy Fourth of July!" Lindgren said in concluding the message on Twitter, which was mostly a thank-you to the employees of the Houston-based NASA Johnson Space Center or JSC (which posted the tweet).

JSC, first named the Manned Spacecraft Center, was established in 1961 and is celebrating its 60th year of operations in 2021-22. It serves as the hub of astronaut training, and will soon be working on getting the first Artemis crews ready to land on the moon again later in the 2020s, the astronauts said.

Hines also posted a celebratory message on Twitter, calling back to the name of the spacecraft, which lofted him to space. SpaceX Crew Dragon "Freedom" brought Hines, Lindgren, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to the International Space Station on April 27 and will also serve as their ride home.

"Happy Birthday, America! The crew of FREEDOM and Expedition 67 wishes everyone back home a Happy Independence Day," Hines said.

Festooning the message with emojis showing fireworks, flags and burgers, Hines added, "I am so thankful for the opportunities our country provides. God Bless America."

While there were no crews in orbit in 1962 when JSC was established, Houston did hold a Fourth of July motorcade featuring the Mercury 7 astronauts, NASA said in a June 30 feature about July 4 and spaceflight. Among the participants was Alan Shepard, the first American to fly in space in 1961.

The first astronauts to celebrate July 4 in orbit were the STS-4 space shuttle crew of Thomas "Ken" Mattingly and Henry "Hank" Hartsfield in 1982, NASA said. The duo also landed space shuttle Columbia that day at Edwards Air Force Base in California, marking the first time any orbiter touched down on a concrete runway.

Since 2001, there has been at least one American in orbit on Independence Day every year thanks to the growth of the International Space Station, which first welcomed long-duration crews in November 2000. One of those astronauts, Chris Cassidy, even ran the "Four [Mile] on the 4th" road race in space during Independence Day 2013.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.