CABO CAÑAVERAL, Florida, USA – The first baked cookie prepared in space returned to Earth, along with muscular “super-mice” and other experiments of the International Station.
The SpaceX program brought the cargo on Tuesday, a month after its Dragon capsule arrived at the space station. The capsule moored in the Pacific, bringing on board 1,726 kilograms (3,800 pounds) of equipment.
Scientists want to inspect chocolate cookies, baked by astronauts in a special Zero G oven for Christmas. The furnace arrived at the international station in November so that astronauts could prepare the dough provided by Double Tree. A spokeswoman for the hotel chain said five cookies were baked, one at a time. The company plans to share the details of its experiment in the coming weeks.
“We made space cookies and milk for Santa Claus this year,” NASA astronaut Christina Koch said last month on Twitter, posing with one of the cookies.
The scientists will also receive back 40 mice that flew to the station in early December, including eight genetically modified to double the usual muscle mass. Some of the normal mice gained muscle in orbit for the study. Others will win it in the lab.
“We look forward to welcoming the mice home,” said Dr. Se-Jin Lee of the Jackson Laboratory in Connecticut in an email.
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