Space Station toilet stops working. The **** hits the fan.

[Ian]

Hope they do not all come back as eunuchs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

due to the microgravity, the risks associated with falling toilet seats are significantly reduced on the ISS.

However, there is a much greater risk of getting it caught in the flies, they're big mean zips on them spacesuits.

[Ian]

The Registers take on the water recycling machine incident.

Notable mostly, I think, for the coining of "re-wee machine". Coming soon to a Carling brewery near you...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/21/iss_urine_module_fire_alarm/

[Rick]

Well, I guess it's a bit more imaginative than the tabloids' "wee-cycling"... 

Here's some more from El Reg:

ISS urinal/drinks-machine combo still buggy

Read it here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/24/urine_recycler_troubles_at_iss/

NASA's lost toolbag filmed from Earth

The tool bag lost by NASA astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper during an ISS space walk has been filmed sailing over Earth by a veteran satellite observer over the weekend.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/24/nasa_lost_toolbag_filmed_on_earth/

Endeavour ISS gig extended one day

Endeavour's STS-126 mission to the ISS has been extended by one day so crew can "continue troubleshooting" the orbiting outpost's new Water Recovery System, which has proved somewhat bothersome.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/25/endeavour_mission_extended/

[Rick]

ISS drinks dispenser now taking the p*ss

The International Space Station's cantankerous Water Recovery System is now apparently up and running following a few issues with the unit's Urine Processor Assembly (UPA).

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/26/iss_update/

[Rick]

Astronauts have fixed a urine-recycling unit on the International Space Station, needed to support a six-person crew at the research outpost next year.

The mission of the US space shuttle Endeavour was extended by one day to fix the machine, which is designed to convert urine into drinking water.

The equipment had failed several times since it was delivered a week ago.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7748818.stm

[mickw]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Tucked away with the new hardware set to launch into space aboard NASA's shuttle Discovery on Wednesday night is a desperately-needed spare part for the International Space Station's urine recycler.
The urine recycling system, which was first delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) last November by the shuttle Endeavour, has been malfunctioning since it was installed. Though the technology may sound icky, it is considered vital for the space station to accommodate crews of six astronauts, double its current occupancy of three.

More:   http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090311/sc_space/spaceurinerecyclertogetfixitpart

Apparently the urine was starting to taste like lager 

[Rick]

Technical snags continue to bedevil one of the key new technologies being installed aboard the International Space Station (ISS): one critical to plans for larger crews. We speak, of course, of the troubled urine-recycler space drinks machine - intended to turn golden astronaut juice into cool, lipsmacking refreshments.

Following earlier troubles in which the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) triggered fire alarms and then refused to produce any drinks, NASA beverage chiefs arranged to send up replacement machinery aboard the shuttle Discovery, currently docked at the station. ISS crewmember Sandra Magnus, who holds a PhD in engineering, installed the new kit over the weekend.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/new_upa_still_playing_up/

[Rick]

Can't use apparently non-existent deluxe US space dunny

Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has bemoaned an increasingly petty US-Russian spat in which politics apparently threaten the brotherly co-operation which has hitherto marked life aboard the International Space Station.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/31/iss_toilet_row/

(It must be a slow news day. Where are all those G20/anti-capitalist riots...)

[mickw]

ISS Skipper Mike Fincke gives a video tour of the orbiting lab's new space toilet.

http://www.space.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=SP_090303_expedition18

[mickw]

This champagne tastes like p1ss

Astronauts took a swig of recycled urine water to toast their successful testing of the wastewater recycling system on the International Space Station.

U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt called drinking the recycled water the stuff of science fiction, and cracked several jokes during the inauguration of the system known as ECLSS.

"We have these highly attractive labels on our water bags that essentially say 'brought to you by ECLSS,' and 'drink when real water is over 200 miles away,'" Barratt said.

More:  http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090520-space-urine.html

[Rick]

NASA's deluxe International Space Station toilet clapped out yesterday, meaning the 13 astronauts currently aboard the orbiting outpost will temporarily have to share the Russian "Waste Management System" and space shuttle Endeavour's facilities.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/20/iss_toilet/

[Rick]

The US's $19m space superloo is once again accepting customer input following a successful repair yesterday by the International Space Station's Expedition 20 commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Frank De Winne.

The Destiny laboratory dunny, aka the "Waste and Hygiene Compartment", clapped out on Sunday, obliging the 13 current residents of the ISS to use either the Russian facilities or those aboard space Shuttle Endeavour.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/21/space_loo_fixed/

[mickw]

Gawd help 'em if the Indians get their act together and set up a takeaway 

[Rick]

The International Space Station's buggy urine-recycling unit has packed up again, according to reports. With the shuttle Atlantis due to visit shortly, temporarily boosting the number of people at the orbiting outpost to 12, it's feared that areas of the station may begin to fill up with containers of astronaut piss awaiting treatment.

The crew of the ISS began drinking their own bodily wastes in May, following a troublesome deployment aboard the station for the quarter-billion-dollar water-replenishment system. The barrel-shaped Urine Processor Assembly in particular proved unreliable, at one point triggering a fire alarm and repeatedly breaking down.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/13/piss_recycler_troubles_ahead_of_atlantis/

[mickw]

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station tackled a tricky repair of their urine recycling system Wednesday while engineers on Earth study two issues on the space shuttle Endeavour.

Station commander Jeffrey Williams is expected to spend hours today replacing a broken urine recycler part and pump inside the orbiting lab's water recovery system while other astronauts unload cargo and prepare for a Thursday night spacewalk.

More:   Taking the Piss

They can all that stuff in orbit but can't fix a toilet 
Sounds like a Challenge for Tommy Walsh