Made in space: In a historic experiment, astronauts to bake chocolate-chip cookies at the ISS – Economic Times

After 12 bottles of Bordeaux wine made their way to the International Space Station (ISS), now cookie dough is giving it company in outer space.

Astronauts will bake the chocolate chip cookies at the ISS in a prototype oven, as part of a historic micro-gravity experiment. The objective of the initiative is to make long-duration space travel more hospitable.

The spacecraft carrying the dough of DoubleTree by Hilton's chocolate-chip cookies left the Earth on Saturday from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility, and arrived at the ISS on Monday.

For the initiative, DoubleTree by Hilton has partnered with New York-based Zero G Kitchen, which creates appliances for microgravity use in long-duration space flights, and Nanoracks, a provider of commercial access to space.

Excited to be the first hospitality company to participate in research aboard the space station, Shawn McAteer, senior vice president and global head, DoubleTree by Hilton, said, Were thrilled that our chocolate chip cookie is sending Hilton hospitality into orbit and contributing to a pivotal moment in aerospace history as we test the outcome of the first food baked in space.

Commenting on this being the first time that anything will be baked in space, Mary Murphy, senior internal payloads manager, Nanoracks said in a statement, "What will the cookies look like? Will they bake out equally in all directions and form a sphere, or stay flat? While we dont know for sure how the experiment will turn out, we are looking forward to finding out and learning how to best bake food products in space.

Whether Earthlings will get a taste of the cookies is yet to be decided, as they will undergo additional testing on their return home to assess the outcome.

And though astronauts aboard the ISS will have to skip eating the cookies they bake, the spacecraft has taken up special pre-baked chocolate chip cookies by the hotel for them.

In 1985, a half bottle from Bordeauxs 1975 vintage spent a week in space, thanks to a French astronaut who also took fine viands along on a space shuttle trip.

22 Jul, 2019

22 Jul, 2019

22 Jul, 2019

22 Jul, 2019

22 Jul, 2019

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Made in space: In a historic experiment, astronauts to bake chocolate-chip cookies at the ISS - Economic Times