Summary

  • NASA astronauts on the ISS celebrated Independence Day by sending a message about freedom.
  • The six astronauts represent the largest number of Americans in space on July 4th since 2006.
  • The first Americans to spend the Fourth of July in space happened in 1982.

While people across the United States enjoy the July 4th celebrations today, NASA broadcast a message sent by a team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It has been over four decades since the first Americans spent Independence Day in space during the STS-4 mission on July 4, 1982.

NASA sends July 4 message

The US space agency has a history of beaming celebratory Fourth of July messages back down to Earth and this year didn’t disappoint. A team of six NASA astronauts – Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, Jeanette Epps, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore – recorded a video onboard the ISS reminding the US public of the importance of the freedoms won during the US War of Independence. Epps said,

“The Fourth of July always reminds me of the freedoms that we continue to fight for every day, all over the world.”

One of the astronauts, Barratt, even came with copies of the Declaration of Independence, the first draft of the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, deeming their contents “sacred words” that every American should be familiar with. Barratt has been on the ISS for four months, having arrived with Dominick and Epps in early March during SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission. Williams and Wilmore have been in space less than a month after traveling on Boeing’s Starliner on June 6th, while Dyson came aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in late March – for Dyson and Barratt, this will be their second time spending Independence Day in space.

 CST-100 Starliner autonomously approaches the International Space Station

Photo: Boeing

Together, the six astronauts make up the largest number of Americans to spend the Fourth of July in space since 2006, and each took their moment during the video to express a message of freedom. The team is currently participating in Expedition 71, a research mission to “explore neuro-degenerative diseases and therapies, space botany, space-caused fluid shifts, and algae-based life support systems.

As for the state of terrestrial air travel, airlines in the US are currently managing well with the travel rush during this period. Last year, the holiday period around the Fourth of July was busier than pre-pandemic times and is expected to be even busier this time around, with the TSA expecting around 28 million passengers to be screened.

STS-4 mission

It has been 42 years since the first Americans spent Independence Day in space. On that occasion, astronauts Thomas Mattingly and Henry Hartsfield launched into space onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on June 27th for STS-4 and would land back on Earth on July 4th.

It would be another decade until the next batch of astronauts spent the Fourth of July in space, with seven astronauts on mission STS-50 – also aboard the Columbia – reportedly having little time for celebrations with a heavy scientific research schedule. NASA astronauts Bonnie J. Dunbar and Ellen S. Baker became the first to spend two Fourth of July’s in space in 1995, having been present during STS-50 in 1992.

What are you doing to celebrate the Fourth of July? Let us know in the comments section.

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