Space cookie still smells fresh after four years. Know how

A scent would have lingered in the air at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre in Virginia if the world's first space-baked cookie that made its debut on Wednesday (May 8) was not enclosed in a case. Crafted from a recipe similar to the DoubleTree by Hilton chocolate chip treats, this cosmic confection has defied the odds by maintaining its aroma even after nearly four and a half years in space.

While lamenting the inability to experience its aroma,Jennifer Levasseur, curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, shared, "I can tell you it does still smell like a baked cookie."

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Preserving the cookie without compromising its quality proved to be a delicate task.

Encased in a nitrogen-filled enclosure, the cookie remained shielded from moisture and potential degradation, ensuring its longevity.

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Levasseur explained, "Because it's in this special enclosure, nobody can smell the cookie now, which is probably for the cookie's benefit because if you were able to smell it that would mean that there might potentially be oxygen penetrating it, and then we'd be going in a direction we don't want to go."

Cookie's journey

The cookie's journey began in 2019 with a collaborative effort between Nanoracks (now part of Voyager Space), Hilton, and Zero-G Kitchen to develop an oven suitable for microgravity environments.

After numerous attempts, astronauts finally achieved the perfect cookie texture aboard the International Space Station.

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Returning to Earth in early 2020, the cookie underwent careful preservation procedures before finding its current home at the Smithsonian.

"We needed to defrost it," said Levasseur.

"So the conservation team did some experiments ahead of time, re-making the recipe and then testing for how long they would need to desiccate it and under what conditions would we need to store it so that we would never have to worry about mold becoming an issue."

"It will reside next to other items related to food consumption inside our recreation of the [International Space Station's] Destiny laboratory module," Levasseur added.

(With inputs from agencies)