Meet Cryo

Once, on Christmas Eve, a rocket stood under the pad lights drinking liquid oxygen, colder than any winter on Earth. As it waited, it grew a coat of frost, and the frost listened to the countdown.

The launch director asked every team, "Go or no go?" They all said "Go." So did a small, cold voice from up on the rocket. Then the engines lit, and all that frost fell glittering past the pad.

One piece had said go, so it went. Down, mostly. By Christmas morning it had rolled itself into a snowman, two snowballs high, staring straight up. Twelve tiny ones were rolling off, giggling.

The pad crew named him Cryo, short for cryogenic, which means very, very cold. He told them down didn't count. So they built him a jetpack with two little tanks, like a real rocket's, only snowier.

The launch director gave him her Santa hat, his first present ever, and he's never taken it off. His red scarf started out as a Remove Before Flight ribbon. He's been told. He won't.

On December 1 his Snow Squad gets loose on MaxQ. Sign in, round up all twelve, and he joins you the moment you catch the last one. He's coming down for Christmas. And this time, down counts.