While NASA’s Mission Control teams in Houston remain focused on their around-the-clock responsibility to support the International Space Station (ISS), they also take time to celebrate the holidays and foster camaraderie. Flight controllers and payload personnel, working tirelessly to ensure the station’s smooth operation, embrace festive activities, even during night shifts and weekends.
Fiona Antkowiak, a flight director at Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control Center (MCC), highlighted the challenging nature of the job. “Working in mission control is a very rewarding job, but it also demands a lot from flight controllers and leads to time away from family,” she said. “We really want to make the holiday shifts in MCC extra special.”
In a long-standing tradition, holiday-themed activities help bring joy to these hard-working teams. This year, the focus was a friendly cookie-decorating competition. The competition, first introduced in 2018, saw flight controllers from the MCC’s three shifts come together to craft their best holiday cookie creations. The idea for this year’s contest came from Antkowiak, who reached out to the ISS crew for their involvement. Not only did the astronauts agree to judge the entries, but they also promised to decorate their own cookies from space to be judged by the MCC team.
Astronauts aboard the ISS often celebrate the holidays by decorating cookies, a task made all the more challenging by the zero-gravity environment. NASA astronaut Nick Hague shared his experience on social media, commenting, “It opened up a whole new dimension, quite literally, with layer upon layer of icing.”
This year’s cookie decorating competition, which kicked off on Christmas Eve and continued through Christmas Day, involved teams from NASA’s MCC in Houston, the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Payload Operations Integration Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as international partners from ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). The event allowed for the participation of the ISS crew during their holiday downtime.
The 36 cookie designs reflected a mix of traditional holiday imagery, human spaceflight themes, sports teams, and comic book references. Each team member selected their favorite cookies, and an overall winner was chosen. Payload Operations Director Jaclyn Poteraj’s entry — an astronaut riding a reindeer made from cargo transfer bags — claimed the top spot. These cargo bags are essential for transporting supplies to and from the ISS.
“We had a lot of fun figuring out how to mix the colors we wanted for icing, deciding on designs, and ultimately decorating our cookies,” Antkowiak said. “Our team is lucky to have the responsibility of keeping the space station and her crew safe, and I’m glad we can find ways to still celebrate the holidays while at work.”
As NASA continues to support the ISS, moments like these provide lighthearted relief for those who work behind the scenes, ensuring that the crew’s mission continues smoothly, even when holiday festivities are in full swing.
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