While you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, give thanks that you're celebrating the holiday on a planet with a gravitational field and not 200 miles above the surface of Earth where you probably could not keep your food down in microgravity.

That's the case for six astronauts this Thanksgiving as they hover in space traveling 17,500 miles per hour. Instead of a creamy mashed potatoes or warm candied yams, freeze-dried, irradiated and thermostabilized food is usually their only options, Fox News reported.

Two Americans, one Japanese and three Russians that will be - for lack of a better term - breaking bread aboard the International Space Station (ISS). But instead of smothering their stuffing in gravy and dunking their turkey in cranberry sauce, the astronauts will be eating their meals out of plastic or foil-wrapped packaging.

In an attempt to make Thanksgiving a little less harsh for the astronauts this year, food scientist Vickie Kloeris and her team at NASA have developed shelf-stable Thanksgiving meals to celebrate the holiday on the International Space Station.

First, they had to figure out a way to make the food taste good in space.

"One of our biggest challenges is that crew members in orbit do report that they feel like their taste buds are somewhat dulled," Kloeris told CNN from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "We've been able to do experiments to verify why that is the case, however, we do know that one big contributing factor is the fact that they're not getting as much aroma from the food.

Kloeris noted that nothing is going to taste like homemade food, but insisted all the food is tasty - her favorite is the cornbread dressing, which she said is the closest item to the original.

She told CNN there are 200 different food and beverage items available aboard the ISS, which include traditional Thanksgiving embellishments like cornbread dressing, green beans and sliced turkey.

Astronaut Tom Marshburn, who spent 146 days on the ISS at one point, told CNN Thanksgiving isn't the only holiday that astronauts observe in space. Marshburn recalled celebrating Christmas aboard the station last year.

"Keep in mind you're talking about six dudes, some test pilots, engineers and a doctor, so our ambiance wasn't too great," he said.

To ensure microbiological requirements and stable shelf life, the food items have to be freeze-dried, thermostabilized or irradiated.