NASA Astronauts Send 4th of July Message From Space

Many people who are far from home or traveling away from loved ones will be sending messages today, but here’s a message from a very distant outpost. NASA astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits Earth in low orbit about 250 miles above the planet’s surface, have sent a Fourth of July message to those on the ground:

There are currently nine crew members aboard the space station: six NASA astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts. The six NASA astronauts — Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — came together to send this message, which was recorded on June 28.

“The Fourth of July always reminds me of the freedoms that we continue to fight for every day all around the world,” Epps said. “And it also reminds me to be with my family and friends, and celebrate those freedoms that we still recognize and celebrate every day.”

“For me, July 4th is just a reminder of the strength of character that our ancestors and their families had to not only have the will to fight for our freedom, but the courage to do so,” Dyson said.

Over the years, astronauts on the ISS have made a habit of celebrating holidays like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas with video messages and fun outfits and events. In previous years, astronauts have donned red, white and blue outfits or striped and starry-eyed items. Crafty NASA astronaut Karen L. Nyberg even iced an American flag cookie in space in 2013.

For some astronauts currently aboard the ISS, like Barratt and Dyson, this is the second time they’ve celebrated the Fourth of July aboard the station. It’s also the first time so many Americans have celebrated the day since 2006. The ISS crew typically ranges from three to 12 people, depending on which spacecraft arrive and depart from the station, and often includes astronauts from Europe and Japan, as well as the United States and Russia.

The current large crew is partly due to the presence of Wilmore and Williams, who arrived at the station on the first manned test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. They were due to leave last month, but problems with helium leaks on the spacecraft mean they will stay in space a little longer while more research is conducted.