Clinton phones space crews for US Thanksgiving

The shuttle crew dinned on Dinty Moore American classic turkey with stuffing and gravy dinners, bought from a Houston supermarket near mission control for $ 1.99 dollar. Side dishes included cranberry sauce, pumpkin cookies and pecan pie.

"About as traditional as you can get being 150 miles up," shuttle skipper Kevin Kregel said in a space-to-ground interview yesterday.

Smoked turkey, dehydrated mashed potato, corn and peas in milk sauce was on the Mir menu for US Astronaut David Wolf and Russian crewmates Anatoli Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov.

"I’m kind of missing those sweet potatoes with the marshmallow on top, but we’re going to do a pretty good job of it here," Wolf told NASA chief Daniel Goldin in a phone call yesterday.

United States President Bill Clinton joined in on the space festivities, placing a phone call to the crew aboard Columbia.

"I just wanted to call you to salute your sacrifice and thank you for what you’re doing and congratulate you on Monday’s satellite recovery," Clinton said, who was spending the holiday with family and friends at his Camp David retreat.

"Of course we miss our own families down on earth, but the six of us up here are a family in itself so we’re enjoying this Thanksgiving day also," Kregel replied.

"One of the things that we have to be thankful for is we have people like you doing the work you’re doing," Clinton said.

"Your smiles make my day."

On Monday, two spacewalking astronauts caught the solar observatory Spartan by hand in a dramatic rescue operation. The satellite was not properly switched on before being dropped of by Columbia’s crew last week and was then accidentally knocked into a spin by the robot arm.