Astronaut, Food Scientist to Discuss Thanksgiving in Space

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Nov 18, 2011, 02:45 ET

HOUSTON, Nov. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Please pass the irradiated smoked turkey, thermostable yams and freeze-dried green beans. The International Space Station is stocked and ready for an out-of-this-world Thanksgiving feast.

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The three station crew members, one American and two Russians, will enjoy a holiday dinner floating 220 miles above Earth. In addition to the traditional holiday favorites, albeit with a space-food flair, their menu will include NASA's own cornbread dressing, as well as home style potatoes and cranberries. And, along with the best view from any Thanksgiving table, cherry-blueberry cobbler is available for dessert.

Vickie Kloeris, NASA food scientist and manager of the space station food system, and astronaut Clay Anderson are available for live satellite interviews on Wednesday, Nov. 23, from 6-7:30 a.m. CST to discuss the station's Thanksgiving menu. A veteran of two space flights, Anderson spent 152 days living aboard the station in 2007 and returned to the outpost in 2010 as a member of space shuttle mission STS-131. Related b-roll will precede the interviews at 5:30 a.m.

To arrange an interview, news media representatives must contact the Johnson Space Center newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 3 p.m. on Nov. 22.

Participating media must tune into NASA Television's Live Interview Media Outlet channel. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite SES 2, transponder 9C, located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 MHz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity. FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin arrived at the station Tuesday and will spend this holiday season aboard the orbiting laboratory. They are scheduled to live and work aboard the station until March, conducting dozens of experiments and preparing for the arrival of new commercial resupply spacecraft.

Burbank recently described the station crew's plans for celebrating Thanksgiving. For footage of his description, which includes displays of food that will make up their holiday feast, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/tk7dHj

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the space station and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA