Category Archives: Space Station

|Published: Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 17:49 [IST]

NASA is working on a variety of projects for space exploration and recently began working on the 'robot hotel' at ISS. Now, NASA and Axiom Space, a startup in Houston, have partnered to build the first commercial habitat module for ISS. The habitable module will be used for commercial missions and also housing experiments.

Space travel is soon going to be an exciting thing to look forward to. A lot of companies are already working on this and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk plans to populate Mars by 2050. The new collaboration between NASA and Axiom Space could be the first step to making space travel a commercial possibility.

According to the new plan, NASA plans to develop new technology for commercial space travelers riding to ISS via human-rated spacecraft like the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner. Axiom Space was founded in 2016 and is led by co-founder and CEO Michael T. Suffredini. The CEO was previously a program manager for ISS at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Axiom Space boasts about a lot of ex-NASA personnel on its team, which could be a good thing for the upcoming project. For now, NASA has extended the planned service life of the International Space Station. From the looks of it, NASA is keen to explore its plans for private orbital labs.

The current leadership at NASA is encouraging private and commercial facilities to space. Soon, ISS will wear a different facade. Although the ISS module isn't a full-fledged private space station, it's currently the stepping stone for NASA's goal of commercializing the space station completely. This will also lead to more commercial private space activity in the low Earth orbit.

The Axiom Space mandate with NASA includes "at least one habitable commercial module" and comes with the implication that it might get more extensions in the future. With this, NASA and the startup will negotiate terms and the funds for the contract for the module. Of course, it'll come with a timeline for delivery.

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NASA Ropes In Axiom Space To Develop Habitable Space Station - Gizbot

The Bartolomeo research platform, developed by Airbus for the International Space Station (ISS), has been delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The move marks a further step towards something never before seen in space: with its planned launch in March, the European-built Bartolomeo is set to become the first commercial research platform to be attached to the ISS.

Bartolomeo is funded by Airbus and will be operated with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA). The platform can host up to 12different payload slots, also providing them with a power supply and data transmission back to Earth.

With Bartolomeo, Airbus is offering fast and cost-efficient access to research in space, which can also be used by private data service providers. The platforms unique vantage point 400kilometres above the Earth offers unobstructed views of our planet. Not only does this provide opportunities for Earth observation, but also for carrying out measurements related to environmental and climate research for example the concentration of nitrogen oxide or CO2in the Earths atmosphere.

Bartolomeo will now be subject to further inspections and final functional tests with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center before being integrated into a Dragon space transporter. The launch is currently scheduled for 2March 2020.

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Bartolomeo Starts Its Journey to the International Space Station - I-Connect007

On January 28, 1986, at 11:39 EST, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center. Her crew consisted of six NASA astronauts, Commander Francis R. Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik and Gregory Jarvis, and teacher Christa McAuliffe, who had been chosen to become the first American civilian to go into space. No one cheering when the Challenger cleared the tower knew, but both shuttle and her gallant company were doomed.

Space shuttles at the time consisted of an orbiter, two solid rocket boosters and an external fuel tank. The SRBs and the fuel tank were designed to be discarded in flight while the shuttle flew on to orbit. When a shuttle mission was completed, it would reenter the Earths atmosphere and land much like an aircraft.

Seventy-three seconds into the flight of the Challenger, hot gasses from one of the SRBs broke through an O ring that had been made brittle by the cold air of that winter morning. The hot gasses ignited the fuel tank and transformed the shuttle into a fireball. The SRBs careened into the sky on their own, and the orbiter broke up from the aerodynamic pressures. The crew compartment, largely intact, hit the Atlantic Ocean. The exact timing of the crews deaths will never be known, but some are surmised to have lived long enough to have died on impact.

The Challenger disaster led to shock and no little amount of soul-searching. A presidential-appointed investigation panel soon discovered the problem with the O-rings. But behind that immediate cause was a culture of negligence. NASA managers knew about the O-ring problem but failed to fix it until it was too late.

But the real act of hubris surrounding the space shuttle program came at its very beginning. NASA and its political masters justified the shuttle because it would constitute a government space line. Because it would be reusable, it could deploy anything anyone cared to take into space.NASA, military and commercial payloads could be transported at a lower cost than with expendable rockets.

Reality proved to be short of expectations. While the shuttle was (mostly) reusable, the orbiters cost too much and required too much turn-around time between missions. NASA struggled to get the flight rates high enough for those promised cost savings to materialize. That struggle and the corner cutting that ensued led directly to the Challenger accident.

NASA eventually solved the O-ring problem, and the space shuttle returned to service in late 1988. But President Reagan signedan executive orderthat ended the shuttle program as a government space line. Henceforth, the military and commercial companies would be free to seek other space launchers to put their payloads into orbit. The shuttle would be used for NASA payloads and others that needed its ability to fly into orbit and then return. Thus, commercial space, moribund since the shuttle had started to fly, was born.

The shuttle fleet went on to do magnificent work. It deployed and then serviced the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttles did most of the work of launching and assembling the International Space Station. They flew numerous space lab missions and visited the Russian space station Mir after the Cold War ended.

But only after the second accident that destroyed a space shuttle and its crew, when Columbia broke up in the skies over Texas, did the United States take the next step. The George W. Bush administration decided that the shuttle fleet would be retired honorably when the International Space Station was completed. Commercially developed and operated spacecraft would take cargo and eventually crews to and from the ISS. Bush also announced an initiative to go back to the moon and on to Mars.

President Obama cancelled the Bush moon/Mars initiative but doubled down on the commercial space project. It has fallen to President TrumpDonald John TrumpWarren: Dershowitz presentation 'nonsensical,' 'could not follow it' Bolton told Barr he was concerned Trump did favors for autocrats: report Dershowitz: Bolton allegations would not constitute impeachable offense MORE to finish the development of commercial spacecraft. Sometime this year, the first Americans will fly into space from American soil on American spacecraft since 2011. These will not be spacecraft owned by NASA, but by SpaceX and Boeing. Trump has also restarted the moon/Mars initiative, but with commercial partners, especially in the building and operation of lunar landers.

The crew of the Challenger gave their lives for the exploration of space. Their sacrifice also led to the new era of commercial spaceflight and, it is hoped, a more sustainable opening of the high frontier.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitledWhy is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?as well asThe Moon, Mars and Beyond. He blogs atCurmudgeons Corner.

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The death of the Challenger and the birth of commercial space | TheHill - The Hill

Marcia Dunn, Associated Press Published 10:24 a.m. ET Jan. 28, 2020 | Updated 1:10 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2020

Cape Canaveral, Fla. After nearly 11 months in orbit, the astronaut holding the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman cant wait to dig into some salsa and chips, and swim and surf in the Gulf of Mexico.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch told the Associated Press on Tuesday her 319th consecutive day in space that taking part in the first all-female spacewalk was the highlight of her mission. Shes been living on the International Space Station since March and returns to Earth on Feb. 6, landing in Kazakhstan with two colleagues aboard a Russian capsule.

Astronaut Christina Koch talks to family members March 14, 2019, before the launch of Soyuz MS-12 headed to the International Space Station. Koch set the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman and will be second only to astronaut Scott Kelly for longest mission by an American.(Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky, AP)

Koch, who was born in Grand Rapids, said she and fellow astronaut Jessica Meir appreciated that the Oct. 18 spacewalk could serve as an inspiration for future space explorers.

Read more:

>>Koch sets records in space

>>Astronaut talks about goals

We both drew a lot of inspiration from seeing people that were reflections of ourselves as we were growing up and developing our dreams to become astronauts, Koch told The Associated Press from the space station. So to recognize that maybe we could pay that forward and serve the same for those that are up and coming was just such a highlight.

Kochs astronaut class of 2013 was split equally between women and men, but NASAs astronaut corps as a whole is male-dominated. Right now, four men and two women are living at the space station.

Christina Koch, left, greets fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir in September when Meir joined Koch on the International Space Station. They paired up for an all-female spacewalk in October. Koch, who was born in Grand Rapids, will return to Earth on Feb. 6 after the second-longest space mission by an American.(Photo: AP)

Diversity is important, and I think it is something worth fighting for, said Koch, an electrical engineer who also has a physics degree.

Kochs 328-day mission will be the second-longest by an American, trailing Scott Kellys flight by 12 days. Shes already set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.

She took time out for a pair of news interviews Tuesday, the 34th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger accident that claimed all seven lives on board.

She said she loves her work she conducted five spacewalks and tended to science experiments but she also misses her friends and family.

If they could visit here, I would continue staying for a very long time, Koch, a first-time space flier, told the AP. For their sake, I think that its probably time to head home.

Her biggest surprise is how easily and quickly she adapted both mentally and physically to weightlessness.

I dont even really realize that Im floating any more, she said.

Why do chips and salsa top her most-missed food list? Crunchy food like chips are banned on the space station because the crumbs could float away and clog equipment. I havent had chips in about 10 1/2 months, she explained, but I have had a fresh apple thanks to regular cargo deliveries.

Another thing she misses: the ability to put things down and not have them float away.

Shes gotten used to using Velcro and tape to make things stay put, so I hope that when I go back to Earth, I dont accidentally drop things, especially when Im handing them to people.

Kelly, whose mission spanned 2015 and 2016, has given her advance notice of what to expect.

Its a great reminder to keep mentoring, Koch said. When her record is broken, I hope to mentor that person just as Ive been mentored.

Koch said it was crucial staying connected to loved ones through phone calls and video conferences. She watched as her nieces and nephews opened their Christmas presents. But its also special celebrating holidays in space, she noted, which kind of takes any sting off of missing your family.

Koch grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and now lives near the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas, with her husband, Bob. She said she cant wait for their next wedding anniversary, Christmas at home and his birthday.

Her 41st birthday is Wednesday. How does she plan to celebrate?

Playing Scrabble with her U.S., Italian and Russian crewmates, as challenging as that might be in weightlessness. She packed a travel version of the game and has been too busy to enjoy it.

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Mich. native craves salsa and surf after record 11 months in space - The Detroit News

Update for 6:30 p.m. ET: SpaceX is now targeting no earlier than Wednesday (Jan. 29) at 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT) for this Starlink launch "due to poor weather in the recovery area," the company tweeted Monday night.

Update for 9:21 a.m. ET: SpaceX has delayed today's planned Starlink launch due to high upper level winds.

The private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch 60 new Starlink satellites to join its growing broadband internet megaconstellation in orbit today (Jan. 27), and you can watch it live online.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Starlink mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for no earlier than 9:49 a.m. EST (1449 GMT).

You can watch SpaceX's Starlink launch webcast here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff. You can also watch the launch directly from SpaceX here.

SpaceX has a 50% chance of good launch weather today, according to the 45th Weather Squadron of the U.S. Air Force, with thick clouds and "disturbed weather" as the chief concern.

If SpaceX is unable to launch the Starlink-3 mission today, the company has a backup launch opportunity on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 9:28 a.m. EST (1428 GMT). That launch day has an 80% chance of good weather.

Video: See SpaceX's 1st Starlink satellites in the night skyIn Photos: SpaceX launches third batch of 60 Starlink satellites to orbit

The goal of SpaceX's Starlink project is to provide constant, high-speed internet access to users around the world through a massive constellation of broadband internet satellites operating in low Earth orbit. Users on the ground would then only need a small terminal that's no bigger than a laptop to gain internet access.

"Starlink will provide fast, reliable internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable," the company wrote in its Starlink mission description.

The majority of SpaceX's missions in 2020 will consist of Starlink launches as the company works to expand its fleet of internet-beaming satellites, including at least one more batch of 60 Starlink satellites scheduled to launch before the end of January. SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has said the company will need at least 400 Starlink satellites in orbit to offer "minor" broadband coverage, and at least 800 to provide "moderate" coverage.

SpaceX plans to operate its initial batch of 1,584 satellites 341 miles (549 kilometers) above Earth, hovering much lower than traditional communications satellites that operate out of geostationary orbit. Those satellites are too far away to provide the kind of lower-cost coverage SpaceX aims to establish, Musk has said.

Related: SpaceX's 1st Starlink megaconstellation launch in photos!

According to the company, Starlink commercial internet services could debut in parts of the U.S. and Canada after about half a dozen more launches, with global coverage after 24 launches. SpaceX's president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell has said that coverage could begin sometime this year, but the company has not yet announced pricing for its new service.

However, not everyone is thrilled about the idea of SpaceX's new megaconstellation. Astronomers have voiced concerns that the satellites could interfere with crucial scientific observations. To help ease their concerns and mitigate the satellites' apparent brightness, SpaceX is experimenting with special coatings that are supposed to make the satellites appear darker in orbit.

Related: Why SpaceX's Starlink satellites caught astronomers off guard

During today's launch, SpaceX aims to recover the Falcon 9's first-stage booster with an offshore landing on its drone ship Of Course I Still Love You.

The company will also attempt to catch both halves of the rocket's payload fairing using the giant nets on its recovery boats Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Visit Space.com today for complete coverage of SpaceX's Starlink launch.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX is launching 60 more Starlink satellites Wednesday. Here's how to watch live. - Space.com

Fallout 76s upcoming Wastelanders expansion will add two new faction settlements: settlers and raiders. One of these looks like a Lincoln Log fort while the other is made out of a crashed space station. Can you guess which one players are already gravitating towards?

Yesterday, Bethesda shared some screenshots of the two new locations and more information about the people living there. The settlers, led by Paige (the former head of the D.C. Construction Workers Union), are a hard-working, salt of the earth lot who have taken up refuge in Spruce Knob toward the southeastern part of the map. The raiders, meanwhile, have come back to Appalachia to take back territory theyve claimed for themselves before it falls into the hands of the settlers.

Their leader, Meg, looks like shes seen some shit out in the wasteland and probably isnt one for negotiating mutually beneficial deals. The crashed space station she and her gang call home is up in the northern edge of the map, and frankly it looks way more fun. Most raider camps tend to look like if your friend of a friends screamo band played their basement show inside of a scrapyard barbecue pit, but Megs looks like a sci-fi arcade.

In Wastelanders Im going to check out the settlers, wrote one person on Reddit. If they are blowing glass, making electronic components, making their own ceramics...Ill stay. But if its an entire camp of Sturges hammering at the same section of wall for months I think I have to go raider.

Sturges was a synth repairman from Fallout 4 who never did jack shit. Understandably, some players are worried that the big NPC update many are expecting to finally make Fallout 76 good will only repeat some of the last games more uninspired moments. Nothing beats protecting the innocent, but I do envy the raiders and their space station town, wrote another player.

The new characters, dialogue trees, quests, and romance options coming in the Wastelanders update will all be based in one of the two new settlements, with Bethesda heavily implying that a players reputation with one will hurt their reputation with the other, forcing them to choose one over the other.

Based on their sense of style and interior design, Im gonna have to go raiders on this one, despite my deep-rooted commitment to labour solidarity.

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Which Fallout 76 Faction Is Cooler, The Crashed Space Station Or The Log Cabin? - Kotaku Australia

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are taking their third spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Jan. 20) to replace the orbiting laboratories aging batteries and you can catch the epic action live online.

The spacewalk began at 6:35 a.m. EST (1335 GMT) today, marking the third time an all-woman team has worked together outside the station. You can watch the spacewalk live here and on Space.com's homepage, courtesy of NASA TV.

Meir and Koch are wrapping up work that began in October 2019, to upgrade the batteries that store power generated by the space station's solar array. Their first spacewalk (which was the first all-woman spacewalk ever) took place Oct. 18. A second spacewalk successfully wrapped up Jan. 15.

Related: The amazing spacewalks of Expedition 61 in photos

Astronauts use power in space for everything from lighting rooms to conducting experiments. The upgraded batteries are lithium-ion batteries, which are expected to last longer and to generate more power than the previous generation nickel-hydrogen batteries that were installed several years ago.

If Koch and Meir finish the last battery spacewalk as expected, there's another spacewalk by other astronauts coming shortly. NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Italian ISS commander Luca Parmitano are expected to exit the ISS Saturday (Jan. 25), but for a different task.

Parmitano and Morgan spent much of the end of 2019 working on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which is an aging dark matter experiment on the ISS. The astronauts, in concert with teams on the ground, are doing a complex repair that NASA says is the toughest work the agency has done in space since the last Hubble Space Telescope upgrade in 2009.

The duo completed three of four planned AMS spacewalks in 2019. In December, NASA warned that the battery spacewalks (which are more urgent than the AMS spacewalks) and a busy schedule of visiting space vehicles could delay the last AMS spacewalk.

As of this week, however, NASA is projecting all spacewalks will be finished before half of the six-person Expedition 61 crew returns to Earth in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Three astronauts will remain in space as NASA works out the sequence of future missions, which is under discussion as final tests are being run for American commercial crew vehicles to fly astronauts. (Currently, all astronauts fly to the ISS using the Soyuz, but NASA is seeking to shift most of their astronauts to commercial crew vehicles.)

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Spacewalking astronauts are upgrading the space station today. Here's how to watch it live. - Space.com

Riding high but not that high the International Space Station will pass over and within sight of Central Virginians on Wednesday from 6:35 to 6:40 p.m. (It will do so again Thursday night, but the weather is likelier to be cloudy, so Wednesday is the night to get your view.) The space station will be 260 miles above Earth, traveling from southwest to northeast.

The ISS looks like a very bright star moving slowly across the sky, University of Virginia astronomy professor Ed Murphy said Friday in a newsletter to members of the Friends of the McCormick Observatory. It is visible when the sun has set for us on the ground, but the sun is still shining at the altitude of the ISS.

What viewers will see is sunlight reflecting off the solar panels of the space station.

Murphy said the space stations orbit is oriented in a way that makes it visible to Central Virginians every few months as the craft travels southwest to northeast, with six astronauts currently aboard. A few weeks later, it passes over again, traveling northwest to southeast. Those next passes will occur in early February.

Murphy recommends that space station-gazers go outside this evening a few minutes before the pass to allow time for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Face the southwest. Then, a minute or two after 6:35, if the sky is reasonably clear of clouds, you will see the space station appear like a particularly bright star moving fairly slowly upward across the sky. After a few minutes, as it glides toward the northeast, it will pass into the shadow of the Earth and quickly fade from view. The craft is traveling at 17,100 miles per hour, but appears to move slowly because of its distance from Earth.

Aboard the space station are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch, who on Monday Martin Luther King Jr. Day replaced some batteries on the craft, and thereby completed historys third-ever all-woman spacewalk. (They accomplished the first all-female spacewalk last October.)

This has really been an amazing experience, Meir is quoted by media as having said after Mondays expedition outside the ship. Today is also Martin Luther King Day, a personal hero for both me and Christina. I will borrow his wise words for this moment: We may have all come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now. When one has as spectacular a view as we had today looking down on our one common home, planet Earth, his words resonate loudly.

Tonight, Central Virginians have an opportunity to look up to the astronauts, as they sail overhead looking at us.

For more information about ISS tracking, click here. For information about the Friends of the McCormick Observatory, click here.

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International Space Station to Pass Within View Wednesday Evening - UVA Today

Does this have anything to do with cars? Not at all, but we like Lego, space is cool, and what the heck, it's Sunday. Lego is celebrating 10 years since it launched Lego Ideas, a platform for fans to concoct new creations that otherwise didn't already exist. To mark the occasion, Lego took one of the community's ideas, a small-scale model of the International Space Station and turned it into a real, for-sale product. The design comes from Christophe Ruge, and it will be available to buy on February 1, 2020.

Lego already offers numerous space-themed kits and toys. There's a lunar space station, a deep space rocket with a launch control building, a NASA Apollo 11 lunar lander, a shuttle transporter, a Mars research shuttle, a space research and development people pack, and many more. This is the first time, however, a replica of the International Space Station will be available.

The new kit includes a 148-page instruction booklet that explains how to put together 864 pieces. When assembled, it measures 7 inches high, 12 inches long, and 19 inches wide. It sits on a black pedestal stand and also comes with its own space shuttle (unlike the real I.S.S.). Several detailed features make the kit as realistic as possible, including a dock for the space shuttle, a poseable Canadarm2, two rotating joints, and eight adjustable solar panels.

Technically, the idea is not new. Ruge, a 42-year-old Germany native, submitted the kit, along with several other space kits, roughly three years ago. It gained thousands of votes of support from the Lego Ideas family, but it never made it to home base.

"We decided to dive into the archives of Lego Ideas projects that had gathered 10,000 supporters but hadnt quite made it into production," the Lego Group Engagement Manager Hasan Jensen said in an online announcement. "We decided that one of these great ideas should have a second chance, so we thought we would turn the Lego Ideas process upside down. This time we started the internal review and came up with four exciting projects that we thought showed the greatest potential and then it was up to the Lego Ideas community to decide which of the four would be made into Lego Ideas set number 29."

The initial project was built on a larger scale and took Ruge, a computer engineer who works for a company that builds trains, more than three years to design. This time around, however, the kit was much smaller, so it only took him about four days to create (Read more about Ruge and his process at Lego Ideas).

The official kit will be available online and at Lego retailers on February 1 for $69.99, plus tax. Or, if technology, global collaboration, and the search for the meaning of the universe is of no interest to you, Lego is also selling a Flintstones kit with the Flintstones car for $59.99.

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A Lego International Space Station kit is on the way - Autoblog

It turns out that, even in space, freshly baked chocolate-chip cookiessmell incredible.

Recently, a batch of chocolate chip cookies the first food ever baked in space returned to Earth aboard aSpaceX Dragon capsule (three of the five cookies, which were baked one at a time, were returned to Earth). The cookies started out from the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel chain as Earth-made dough, which launched to the International Space Station along with the Zero G oven (the first oven designed to work in space) on Nov. 2, 2019.

Now, following the cookies' return, we have the final results from this delicious experiment.

Related:Space Food Evolution: How Astronaut Chow Has Changed (Photos)

So, first things first, the astronauts aboard the space station were able to smell the second, third, fourth and fifth cookies they baked, a press representative said in an email statement (the first cookie turned out underbaked and didn't cook long enough to emit an aroma). In space, even without gravity, smells travel via individual aroma molecules. In the microgravity environment aboard the space station, these molecules travel in whatever direction they are moved. (On Earth, the aroma molecules move in all directions due to random collisions with air molecules.)

Now, smelling the chocolate-chip cookies on the space station, where astronauts can eat only "space foods," you might assume that the spacefliers wouldn't be able to resist sneaking a bite of a freshly baked cookie. However, "while the brand's chocolate chip cookies were likely fit for consumption after they were baked on the ISS, additional testing is required before any food can be considered officially 'edible,'" the representative told Space.com in an email.

"But don't worry," the representative added, "astronauts aboard the ISS enjoyed special pre-baked DoubleTree chocolate-chip cookies that were sent up on Nov. 2, 2019!"

Related:DoubleTree Offers Limited Edition 'Cookies in Space' Tin

Before the cookie dough headed to the space station, there was speculation about how the dough would bake in microgravity. Would it puff up and bake into a sphere? Would it look like a regular cookie? Would the cookie take longer to bake? Would it take less time?

On Earth, the average cookie made with this DoubleTree chocolate-chip cookie dough took 16-18 minutes to bake in a convection oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius). The astronauts, who baked the first four cookies at 300 F and the fifth cookie at 325 F (165 C), were instructed to figure out exactly how long it would take to properly bake a cookie in space.

In baking the first cookie, they found that after 25 minutes it was underbaked. The second cookie only started to fill the station with its delicious aroma after a whopping 75 minutes in the oven.

The cookies that seemed to bake the best were the fourth and fifth cookies, which baked for 120 and 130 minutes, respectively, and were then left to cool outside the oven for 25 and 10 minutes, respectively.

So, were they spherical? Weird looking? Apparently not. The cookies looked just like cookies baked on Earth, according to a DoubleTree statement.

"Perfecting the baking process for our DoubleTree cookies took time, even on Earth, so we were excited to learn that our cookies appear to look and smell the same on the ISS as they do in our hotels," Shawn McAteer, the senior vice president and global head of DoubleTree by Hilton, said in the statement. "The innovation displayed throughout this experiment and emphasis on making long-duration space travel more hospitable underscores our ongoing commitment to ensuring guests always have a comfortable stay, wherever they may travel."

Want to see the cookies for yourself? First, the cookies will undergo more testing, informing our understanding of how food bakes in microgravity so that future crewed missions might be more comfortable, according to the statement.

Then, after testing, the cookies are to be preserved and put on display. One of the cookies has also been offered as a donation to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where it is being considered for display in the collection.

Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Houston, we have a bake-off! We finally know what happens when you bake cookies in space - Space.com