This
story was updated at 5:08 p.m. EDT.
The newest
bathroom aboard the International Space Station will have to wait for a vital
road test, even though the space shuttle Discovery's crew has more than tripled
the orbiting lab's population.
Discovery's
seven astronauts arrived
at the space station late Tuesday to receive a warm welcome from the
outpost's three-person crew. But delays launching the shuttle forced NASA to trim
some objectives from Discovery's flight, including a spacewalk, flight day and,
sadly, the planned test of the station's
new orbital loo.
NASA space
operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier told SPACE.com just after Discovery's
Sunday launch that station mission planners were hopeful they could still fit
the space toilet test in Discovery's mission. But the test must now wait until
after repairs to the station's urine recycling system and a water dispenser,
NASA officials told SPACE.com Wednesday.
Space
station commander Michael Fincke sent Discovery's crew a video tour of the
station's new bathroom when plans were in place to have the astronauts aboard
help test the space toilet's capacity to make sure it was ready to support six
long-term residents. While Fincke's crew currently numbers three astronauts,
the station is slated to double its occupancy up to six people in late May.
"You guys
are going to get to try it out," station commander Michael Fincke told
Discovery's crew in a recent video
tour of the new bathroom.
A NASA
spokesperson said the toilet is available for use by astronauts aboard the
station, but won't be tested for its capacity during the eight days Discovery
is docked at the orbital lab. The shuttle launched to the space station late
Sunday to deliver the last piece of the outpost's backbone-like main truss, a
final pair of U.S. solar arrays and new station crewmember Koichi Wakata of
Japan.
Discovery
also delivered a vital spare part for the outpost's urine recycling system and
equipment to help eliminate bacteria in a new water dispenser. The repairs are
expected to fix the station's water recycling system and help the outpost
support larger crews.
NASA
officials said that installing the spare part to revive the urine recycler took
precedence over the space toilet test during Discovery's flight.
A new
orbital loo
Delivered
last November, the space station's new bathroom fits in a wall space about the
size of a large refrigerator. It is based on a Russian design, cost about $90
million and has a complicated-looking instruction panel complete with buttons
and lights.
An emblem
on its back wall shows a spacewalking astronaut with a roll of toilet paper in
hand and the slogan "Orbital Outhouse Team."
"Some fine
folks in Russian and the United States built it," Fincke said.
Thise
station's new bathroom is installed in the outpost's American segment. It was a
welcome addition to the station, which for nearly a decade housed two and
three-person crews with only one bathroom in its Russian-built segment. (Of the
10 astronauts now on station, those who don't use the new bathroom can use the
old one or Discovery's own space commode.)
The new
bathroom was installed alongside extra life support, kitchen and exercise gear,
also aimed at dealing with larger permanent crews.
So exactly
how do you go to the
bathroom in space? Very carefully, and by the book, Fincke said.
"We have
two kinds of toilet paper, Russian-style and American-style," Fincke said in
his video tour. Wet wipes are also available and, like bathrooms on Earth,
there's a handy trash bag and a stash of extra supplies.
Unlike on
Earth, there's no gravity in space to help flush waste down a toilet. Instead,
astronauts rely on fans and airflow to carry waste away for disposal.
One vital caution from Fincke: if the big red light pops up,
call a station crewmember. It means the urine tanks are full.
"We monitor
those pretty carefully, so hopefully it should never be a surprise to us,"
Fincke said in his video. "But with a lot of people, you never know."
SPACE.com
is providing continuous coverage of STS-119 with reporter Clara Moskowitz at
Cape Canaveral and senior editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
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