Thanks to technology and science, Thanksgiving has gotten better for astronauts. Just imagine: while everyone else gets the day off specifically to gorge their faces, space dwellers have to eat space food with their co-workers. Nasty. But, thanks to scientific food breakthroughs and other tech advancements, Thanksgiving isn’t the loneliest day ever. Because of the latest advances in science, future astro-people won’t have to forgo fresh sweet potatoes. Researchers at Purdue have developed a technique for growing arguably the best part of Thanksgiving in space-like conditions. Who knows, maybe one day we'll all be eating our Thanksgiving meals in the stars. Ok, real Thanksgiving up there is still a dream, for now, astronauts are making the best of it.

An American will lead Thanksgiving with two Russians aboard the International Space Station, as you can see from the NASA video below.

Ok, so the food comes in silver packages and it’s freeze dried space food. But over the years, space food has gotten better. This year, the three will enjoy a Thanksgiving-esque spread: smoked turkey, homestyle potatoes, cornbread dressing, corn, green beans, cranberries, and cherry blueberry cobbler. As you can see: No sweet potatoes. (We're looking at you, science.) 

Of course, astronauts have been celebrating Thanksgiving in space for a while, with the first ever meal happening in 1973. But 1973 space men were probably a bit lonelier than this year's crew who can talk to their family over a videoconference. As you can see from this 2007 Thanksgiving celebration, even the video quality has been improving.

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