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Endeavour's seven astronauts today are the sixth shuttle crew to spend Thanksgiving in orbit.
They'll join the International Space Station's three residents - two astronauts and a cosmonaut - for a quiet morning of personal time when they may contact family members.
Then they'll feast on a traditional meal of smoked turkey with cornbread stuffing, candied yams, a green bean and mushroom casserole and a cran-apple desert. Tea with sugar is available to wash it down.
"We can give thanks for what we have, and never stop dreaming," said Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Endeavour's lead spacewalker, after the crew was awakened this morning to Electric Light Orchestra's "Hold On Tight".
After eating around 1 p.m., the two crews will prepare to say goodbyes as their nearly two-week stay together nears an end. They'll transfer final pieces of equipment, including water samples, laptops and spacesuits between the shuttle and station.
Just before 6 p.m., they'll hold a farewell ceremony before closing the hatches between the two vehicles.
Endeavour is scheduled to end a 13-day visit with the station at 9:47 a.m. Friday.
The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center at 7:55 p.m. Nov. 14, and docked two days later. It's scheduled to land at the spaceport at 1:18 p.m. Sunday.
You can follow the astronauts' Thanksgiving in orbit here at The Flame Trench. Just click on the NASA TV still image above to launch a live viewer.
NASA TV's broadcast schedule includes crew interviews with several media outlets starting at 1:21 p.m. sharp.
The Endeavour crew has accomplished its major goals and has nearly completed its work in space.
"It's just been a really great mission," station flight director Emily Nelson said this morning. "We are happy that these guys are going to get a little bit of time off to appreciate the stars and what they can see in low Earth orbit, and to look down on us and see this beautiful planet of ours."
This Flight Day 14 Execute Package offers a detailed schedule and messages from mission controllers.
"Happy Thanksgiving!!!!" one message reads. "We are all very thankful that STS 126 has been such an outstanding flight! Make the most of your last day of docked ops!"
Today is the last day on the station for astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who arrived at the outpost in May and will return home on Endeavour.
He's taking the seat Sandra Magnus used for the ride up. Magnus has begun a planned four-month tour as a station flight engineer for Expedition 18, replacing Chamitoff.
American astronauts first spent Thanksgiving in space in 1973 aboard Skylab, and have routinely done so this decade aboard the space station.
These five previous shuttle crews spent the holiday in orbit:
1989: STS-33 (Discovery)
1991: STS-44 (Atlantis)
1996: STS-80 (Columbia)
1997: STS-87 (Columbia)
2002: STS-113 (Endeavour)
Endeavour mission specialist Don Pettit was part of the last mission that spanned the holiday, also on Endeavour in 2002. He was just beginning a six-month tour as a science officer on the space station's sixth expedition.
But retired astronaut Story Musgrave holds the NASA record, having flown on three of those Thanksgiving shuttle flights.
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