[img]/assets/Images/Media/Ciel-2-Blog/SES-Chefs.JPG[/img] SES Engineering and ILS hosted a Thanksgiving feast fit for kings and launch campaign personnel.  The cooking started the previous afternoon and continued into our Thanksgiving Day since there was not enough space to cook all of the birds.  Everyone used the half-day break before joint operations to enjoy the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and quintessential cranberry sauce.  (No Thanksgiving is complete without it!) The mouth-watering feast was prepared by our in-house SES Engineering chefs.   In addition to launching satellites, our customer (launch program manager and engineers) could give the best chefs around the globe a run for their money! All of us are away from our loved ones on this special day.  Even with land and oceans separating us from our families, the unity of our Baikonur family made the day more poignant! After our early dinner, we piled into the bus and vans to head out to the viewing area for the Soyuz launch.  We joined what seemed like half of Baikonur town to watch what turned out to be a spectacular launch, with the engine plumes catching the setting sun and blazing red, orange and blue. We concluded our day with … you guessed it: a late supper of copacetic turkey sandwiches then headed off to bed to prepare for an early morning start to joint operations.