Around eight hours after a Falcon 9 was launched, CRS-19 came back to Earth after a month-long stay at the space station.  According to a NASA press release, the SpaceX Dragon Cargo was released from the International Space Station at 10:05 AM UTC and splashed down nearly 40 minutes later in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.  SpaceX reported a successful recovery of the craft.

Among the cargo returning to Earth are live mice and space cookies!

A DoubleTree representative that spoke with Space.com confirmed that all five cookies were baked and that space cookies were on board the returned craft.  It’s unclear exactly how many cookies were baked, meaning that the ISS crew may not have had the chance to indulge in freshly-baked cookies. Before you panic, yes, they did get cookies — a tin of DoubleTree’s chocolate chip cookies were sent up along with the cookie dough.

Now, for the mice: yes, they came back alive!  This is a bit unusual for animal experiments on the ISS — historically, animal subjects were often euthanized before being returned as biological specimens.  The forty “mighty mice” will be allowed to recover from spaceflight and then studied to see if inhibiting myostatin is a possible method to prevent muscle and bone loss.  Myostatin is the protein that literally tells your muscle cells to stop growing. When you inhibit myostatin, your muscle cells continue to grow. If this works, it could be used by both astronauts and people here on Earth to prevent or slow muscle and bone loss.

More information on the science can be found here:

• Dragon Resupply Mission (CRS-19) Splashdown (SpaceX) https://www.spacex.com/news/2020/01/08/dragon-resupply-mission-crs-19-splashdown
• Dragon Released from Station Carrying Science for Earth-Analysis (NASA) https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2020/01/07/dragon-released-from-station-carrying-science-for-earth-analysis/
• Mighty Mice in Space: Preclinical Evaluation of a Broad Spectrum Myostatin Inhibitor to Prevent Muscle Loss and Bone Loss Due to Disuse (Rodent Research-19) (NASA) https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8075
• The first cookies baked in space are back on Earth! (Space.com) https://www.space.com/first-space-cookies-zero-g-oven-on-earth.html
• Hilton DoubleTree Cookie Dough Launches With Zero G Oven for Space Station (Space.com) https://www.space.com/ng12-launch-doubletree-cookies.html