(2003-11-27) -- U.S. President George Bush today followed his unexpected visit with the troops in Iraq, with a spur-of-the-moment stop at the International Space Station (ISS) in Earth orbit.

After a rousing speech to the troops in Baghdad, Mr. Bush ordered Air Force One to take an unplanned detour to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia where the President boarded a Soyuz rocket.

The ISS trip was so top secret that the few in NASA or the Russian space agency were even aware of it until the President passed through the airlock and began squeezing out the tubes of turkey paste to serve Thanksgiving dinner to the crew.

The White House had arranged a cover story about a "crunching" sound that the crew allegedly heard, but which was really the sound of the President's Soyuz docking. News organizations around the world carried the fake story.

Mr. Bush spent about 45 minutes in orbit before returning to Earth for his traditional family dinner of turkey and so-called "fixin's" at his ranch in Crawford, TX.