The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space.
While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes.
And how do they taste? No one knows.
Still sealed in individual baking pouches and packed in their spaceflight container, the cookies remain frozen in a Houston-area lab after splashing down two weeks ago in a SpaceX capsule. They were the first food baked in space from raw ingredients.
The makers of the oven expected a difference in baking time in space, but not that big.
"There's still a lot to look into to figure out really what's driving that difference, but definitely a cool result," Mary Murphy, a manager for Texas-based Nanoracks, said this week. "Overall, I think it's a pretty awesome first experiment."
"So this time, I do see some browning," Parmitano radioed. "I can't tell you whether it's cooked all the way or not, but it certainly doesn't look like cookie dough any more."
"The reminder of home, the connection with home, I think, can't be overstated," Massimino said. "From my personal experience...food is pretty important for not just nutrition but also for morale in keeping people connected to their home and their Earth."