The Sundarban
Vacation commute reached contemporary heights today (Nov. 27), as an American astronaut left home for Thanksgiving dinner — in Earth orbit.
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the three-man crew of the Soyuz MS-28 lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, 2025. (Image credit: NASA/Invoice Ingalls)
“This Thanksgiving, I am grateful to live in a country where the grandson of Panamanian immigrants can represent America in the heavens, on a mission of peace and science,” wrote the elder Williams.
Despite the extra exotic destination, Chris Williams’ time out to the jam jam took far less time than his family’s sea voyage, and became shorter than a few of the interstate street trips anticipated all around the nation today. Having lifted off at 4:27 a.m. EST (0927 GMT or 2:27 p.m. native time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, he, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev docked to the Rassvet module three hours later at 6:34 a.m. EST (1234 GMT).
Flying below the resolution model “Gyrfalcon” — a hen of prey also depicted on their mission patch — the Soyuz MS-28 crew took to the skies atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket embellished with the colourful drawings of pediatric most cancers patients and the portraits of the most foremost astronaut and cosmonauts to reside aboard the ISS 25 years ago.
Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams aboard docks at the International Condo Feature hours after launching atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. (Image credit: NASA)
After they reached orbit, two tiny crocheted dolls signaled they had been now in the weightless atmosphere of outer jam. Their zero-g indicators had been a ginger cat named “Gizmo” that became talented by one in every of the cosmonaut’s families and a knitted cosmonaut made by college students attending college in Gagarin, Russia (their town named after the most foremost human in jam, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin).
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Anticipating their arrival at the jam jam had been the seven participants of Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineers Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Kimiya Yui will greet Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams after the hatches are opened at about 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT) and “sit down” for a feast.
“This is my second Thanksgiving in space, so I highly recommend it,” talked about Fincke in a recorded video released by NASA earlier than the holiday. “This time it is going to be with a new Soyuz crew and we’re getting food ready, so we have the traditions like turkey [and] there is some cranberry sauce here.”
The meals lab at NASA’s Johnson Condo Heart in Houston ready a totally different “Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bag” (BOB) that arrived with a cargo transport in September. “We have got everything here from turkey and the traditional things that Mike mentioned, some mashed potatoes, to crab meat, salmon and we even have some lobster, which is amazing!” talked about Cardman.
The Soyuz 2.1a rocket that launched Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 crew to the International Condo Feature became partly wrapped with art work created by pediatric most cancers patients in better than 50 cities in Russia and 14 countries all around the realm. (Image credit: NASA/Invoice Ingalls)
After the holiday and the return to Earth by Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim aboard Soyuz MS-27 in early December, Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams, together with Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will manufacture the contemporary Expedition 74 crew. During their deliberate protect, the Soyuz MS-28 trio will relief cancel a total bunch of science experiments and technology demonstrations, moreover to conduct imaginable spacewalks and set aside jam upkeep as wanted.
Williams will relief set up and check the European Enhanced Exploration Explain Instrument (E4D), a modular workout gadget for lengthy-length missions that combines bicycling, rowing and resistive capabilities together with rope pulling and hiking. He’ll also conduct reviews to enhance cryogenic gasoline efficiency and grow semiconductor crystals, moreover to aid NASA in setting up revised re-entry safety protocols to protect crew participants all over future missions.
Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev would possibly be the most foremost cosmonauts to be aided by GigaChat, an man made intelligence (AI) bot that by each relate and tablet inputs will relief get choices about the operation of the Russian segment of the jam jam.
The Soyuz MS-28 crew of Chris Williams with NASA (at left) and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (center) and Sergei Mikaev pose together on Nov. 26, 2025, a day earlier than their launch to the International Condo Feature. (Image credit: NASA/Invoice Ingalls)
Soyuz MS-28 is the most foremost spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev and the 2nd for Kud-Sverchkov, who logged 185 days in jam as a flight engineer on the jam’s Expedition 63/64 crew in 2021. Kud-Sverchkov, 42, labored as a rocket engineer for RSC Energia earlier than being chosen as a cosmonaut in 2010.
Mikaev, 39, became flying as a military pilot in the Russian Air Power when he became recruited for spaceflight coaching in 2018.
Williams, 42, has a doctorate in physics, studied
the declare of the Very Expansive Array radio telescope and finished residency coaching at Harvard that later led to him setting up contemporary portray steering programs for most cancers remedy. He joined NASA in 2021 and is the 2nd member of his class (“The Flies”) to hover into jam.
Though they don’t seem to be the most foremost crew to assemble an even time Thanksgiving in jam, the Soyuz MS-28 trio are the most foremost to launch and dock on the holiday day.
Editor’s level to: This article became up to date on Nov.
