Making cookies in space is definitely not an E-Z bake. But thanks to a special space oven from Zero G Kitchen and Nanoracks, astronauts aboard the International Space Station were able to get into the holiday spirit yesterday by making cookies… they just couldn’t eat them (h/t to The Verge).
On Twitter yesterday morning, astronaut Christina H. Koch posted a picture of herself along with fellow ISS resident Luca Parmitano and a fresh baked cookie still in its space age baking container.
The cookies, however, can’t be eaten. Since the oven is still very experimental, astronauts aren’t going to risk eating improperly cooked food while floating around in space. Instead, the cookies have been frozen and will be sent back down to earth for analysis.
Zero G’s space oven is pretty cool. As we wrote back in November when the oven was launched into space:
The new oven, which was built through a collaboration between Zero G Kitchen and Nanoracks, is actually quite fascinating. It’s a cylindrical chamber, and food is held in special silicone trays with 40 micron filters that allow heat and steam to escape and are held in aluminum frames so they can be securely racked.
This isn’t the first time that the oven has been used. The Verge reports that a number of cookie batches were made aboard the ISS this month to varying degrees of at least visual success.
Fresh-baked cookies aren’t the only creature comfort aboard the ISS that the astronauts can’t enjoy. Wine was also shot to the ISS aboard the same ship that brought the oven. But that’s just aging in space for 12 months before being returned to Earth, unopened.
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