Feasting on seafood while floating above Earth sounds like science fiction—but for today’s astronauts, it’s just Thanksgiving dinner with an incredible view.
A New Kind of Space Thanksgiving
Instead of the simple turkey salad that crews ate during the Apollo era, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) now sit down to a far more festive holiday spread. Their modern Thanksgiving menu still includes turkey, but it also features clams, oysters, crab meat, quail, smoked salmon, and an assortment of sides and sweet treats, turning a standard space meal into something that feels much closer to a family celebration on Earth.
Comfort Food 250 Miles Up
Mark Marquette, director of the American Space Museum in Titusville, explains that these special meals are about much more than nutrition; they recreate the feeling of home for astronauts living in isolation roughly 250 miles above the planet. He notes that crews are essentially trying to re-create familiar dishes like a grandparent’s green bean casserole or classic stuffing, because those tastes and traditions bring a powerful sense of humanity and emotional comfort, even in the most high-tech environment imaginable.
How The Holiday Meal Gets To Space
The Thanksgiving feast does not magically appear on the station; it is carefully packed and launched months in advance. In this case, the holiday foods were shipped to the ISS in September aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft, which is designed to deliver supplies and experiments to the orbiting outpost. Among the items was a special Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bag filled with clams, crab, salmon, quail, candies, almond butter, and hummus, making sure the crew had both hearty dishes and small treats to enjoy.
Who’s Sharing The Space Feast
The current ISS crew gathering around this unconventional Thanksgiving table includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke. They are joined by Kimiya Yui from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Oleg Platonov from Roscosmos, turning the holiday into a shared international occasion rather than a purely American celebration.
A Floating Thanksgiving Message
To mark Thanksgiving 2025, Cardman recorded a video from inside the station offering a glimpse of their holiday meal. In the footage, turkey, mashed potatoes, crab, salmon, and lobster can be seen drifting weightlessly inside a transparent food bag, a vivid reminder that even comfort food looks different in microgravity. Cardman remarks that the menu is likely to be an especially delicious one and says she is eager to enjoy it with her crewmates, including new arrivals who are scheduled to launch aboard a Soyuz rocket on Thanksgiving Day itself—a timing that adds extra excitement to the celebration.
How Thanksgiving In Space Began
The tradition of observing Thanksgiving away from Earth goes back several decades. The first Thanksgiving in space took place on November 22, 1973, when the Skylab 4 crew celebrated after completing a demanding six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, rewarding themselves with double portions at dinner even though there was no special holiday menu or turkey on offer. In the years that followed, space Thanksgiving menus became more standardized, typically featuring turkey, potatoes, and sometimes peas, with other items like shrimp and cranberry sauce being added later as space food technology and logistics improved.
A Holiday That Keeps Evolving
Seen over time, Thanksgiving in orbit has evolved from a simple, functional meal into a carefully planned event that balances tradition, nutrition, and emotional well-being. Today’s astronauts enjoy a richer variety of foods, but the core purpose remains the same: to pause, share a meal, and feel connected to home and to each other, even while circling Earth at thousands of miles per hour.
