Holiday travel reached new heights today (Nov. 27), as an American astronaut left home for Thanksgiving dinner — in Earth orbit.

Chris Williams of NASA, together with his Soyuz MS-28 crewmates Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, both cosmonauts with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, lifted off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, beginning a planned eight-month expedition with a coincidental but well-timed celebration.

"The kid who played basketball in the driveway with his cousins before Thanksgiving dinner is now a flight engineer on the three-man crew for Expedition 74," wrote Juan Williams, a civil rights historian and Chris' uncle, in a recent column for The Hill newspaper. "Chris's incredible trip to space is rooted in incredible family trips. His grand

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