Live in Orbit: Thanksgiving Wishes, Toasts

Endeavour astrounats this morning offered Thanksgiving wishes and toasts to mission controllers and all Americans in videos beamed to NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.

"Thanksgiving is one of those truly American holidays that isn't celebrated anywhere else, a time when we have an opportunity to reflect on everything we've been given, and all the privileges we have to live in the fine country that we live in," said mission commander Chris Ferguson. "We generally spend it with family. For us today, we have the opportunity to spend it with our once-removed family if you will, our space family, and I think the same holds true for everybody down there in Mission Control."

"We just wanted to once again come up live and thank everybody down there who is working this Thanksgiving to support this mission," Ferguson added. "We wish you all well, we wish your families well, and please have a little bit of turkey for us. Thank you."

"Happy Thanksgiving!" six crew members said in unison.

Pictured are, clockwise from the top left, mission specialist Steve Bowen, pilot Eric Boe, lead spacewalker Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, mission specialists Shane Kimbrough and Don Pettit, and Ferguson. Greg Chamitoff is not shown.

Then Don Pettit, joined by Steve Bowen, followed by offering a series of toasts drinking tea from plastic "zero-gravity" cups he said he modified to work like rocket fuel tanks, so no straws were needed.

"And now we're going to propose a toast to Thanksgiving, wishing everyone on Earth and off Earth a good Thanksgiving," Pettit said. "And now we're proposing a toast for future space explorers. And finally, we're proposing a toast just because we're in space and we can."

"Due to this contact angle wetting phenomenon," Pettit concluded, "we can sip most of the fluid out of these cups, until it's practically dry, and we no longer have to drink our beverages by sucking through a straw in a pouch.

In about an hour, at 1:20 p.m., you can listen to some crew members respond to questions from several media outlets. Just click on the NASA TV still picture on the right side of the page to launch a viewer.

Mission controllers are having a bit of Thanksgiving fun as well. On the giant monitor tracking the space station's orbit, a turkey symbol now represents the unmanned Russan cargo vehicle that is scheduled to dock with the station Sunday.