Space toilet gets flush repairs

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

RESIDENTS aboard the international space station were getting ready to take on a new task yesterday: plumbing.

The space station's toilet broke two weeks ago. The problem, confined to the urine side of the commode, has forced the orbiting outpost's crew of an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to flush manually with extra water several times a day, officials said.

Space shuttle Discovery brought up a new pump for the testy toilet, as well as the space station's newest room, a US$1-billion Japanese lab.

The mundane task of installing the 16-kilogram pump and hoses was to fall to Oleg Kononenko, one of the two Russians, in the morning. The job was expected to last two hours.

"We'll see if that does the trick or if we need to figure out another solution," said Emily Nelson, a space station flight director.

In addition to fixing the toilet, the shuttle and space station crews planned to make power, data, air and water connections on the newly installed lab, named Kibo, which means hope in Japanese.

Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide installed the 11-meter lab on Tuesday, just as two crew mates were completing a spacewalk. He used the space station's robot arm to nudge the bus-sized lab into place.

Hoshide "will get to turn the module on for the first time. That will be really exciting," Nelson said.

Later today, the 10 space fliers on the linked shuttle and station planned to open the doors to the lab and float in for the first time.