Sunita Williams kicks off Thanksgiving week with studies to improve health, to have ‘delicious’ feast in space: WATCH

NASA astronaut Sunita William, who has been spending time at the International Space Station for the last five months, was among the Expedition 72 crew who kicked off Thanksgiving week "with a multitude of advanced biology and technology studies to improve human health and industry on and off the Earth."

As per a NASA release on November 25, station Commander Sunita Williams worked in the Quest airlock, spending all day configuring spacesuit systems.

"She first serviced airlock oxygen and nitrogen tanks, then filtered and inspected suit cooling loops, and finally installed shields protecting suit life support systems," NASA said.

Thanksgiving 'feast' in space

Four NASA astronauts – Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, Donald R. Pettit and Nick Hague – were featured in a video message, delivering a Thanksgiving Message for 2024. In the video, Nick Hague shared how they are keeping up with the Thanksgiving tradition by having a Thanksgiving meal together.

"We are celebrating that tradition here, though our meal look a little bit different," Hague said, adding that they have a container with all the things that they were going to enjoy on Thanksgiving.

"It is a feast," he said. What was in the container? The astronauts got Brussels Sprouts, butternut squash, apples and spice and smoked turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving on November 28. "It's going to be delicious," the astronaut said.

Sunita Williams shares Thanksgiving message in new video

In her Thanksgiving message, Williams said, “Our Crew up here just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family who are down on Earth and everyone who is supporting us.”

Sunita Williams, along with her fellow astronaut Butch Willmore, has been at the ISS since June. The duo had launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station on June 6.

Later, NASA made a decision to return Starliner to Earth without its crew. The Boeing spacecraft successfully returned on September 6. Wilmore and Williams continued their work formally as part of the Expedition 72 and will return in February next year. This means what would have been a week-long test flight, extended to around 8 months