Space Station Toilet Malfunctions

The new toilet in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module aboard the International Space Station, currently hosting a combined crew of 13, malfunctioned today.

Flight controllers told the astronauts to use toilets in the Russian part of the station and aboard the shuttle Endeavour until the problem is resolved, reports CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood.

"When you get a second, if you could put an out-of-service note on the WHC (waste and hygiene compartment) and advise the crew members that station crew members will have to use the (Russian toilet) and shuttle crew members on the shuttle until further notice," Hal Getzelman radioed from Mission Control.

European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne acknowledged the instructions, and asked if engineers had an estimate on how long it might take to get the toilet back in operation.

"No, we don't have a good estimate," Getzelman said. "What happened, the pre-treat (chemical), we think, flooded the pump separator and we may have got some fluid where we didn't want it and it'll take us a while to work through a procedure to recover."

"OK, Hal," De Winne replied. "I have some (time) available the entire day, I'm available to work the procedure."

"OK, we may have some quicker actions to inspect, but we'll advise you when those are ready."

About a half-hour later, Getzelman told De Winne to don safety goggles and protective gear before opening access panels to determine if critical components were hot due to a chemical reaction related to the initial problem.

The space station is equipped with a Russian toilet in the Zvezda command module and the new U.S.-supplied WHC in the Destiny module. Two toilets are required for the station's permanent six-member crew.

For Endeavour's mission, four of the shuttle astronauts were asked to use the station facilities to avoid waste water dumps from the shuttle during the docked phase of the mission to avoid contaminating a newly-installed Japanese experiment platform that was attached to the Kibo lab module Saturday.

"One of the interesting things this time, when we add the Japanese Exposed Facility, we'd like not to perform waste water dumps out of the shuttle," Kirk Shireman, the deputy space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said before launch.

"So we're actually going to have a number of the shuttle crew members use the ISS toilets for some period of time during the mission so we don't fill up the shuttle waste tanks and have to perform a dump. The shuttle can undock and perform the dump when it's away from the ISS."

It was not immediately known how long the U.S. station toilet could be out of action without causing additional problems for the crew.


For more info:

"Plumbing the Space Station" (NASA)

Space Shuttle Main Page (NASA)

CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood's "Space Place" updates

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 19, 2009 11:12 PM EDT


by erasmus111 July 20, 2009 3:20 AM EDT
So how many girls have you got? 2 girls and 2 boys?


HELLO?

You've already told me that you have 4 kids, so now you can't tell me what they are? Is it a secret?

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 20, 2009 9:45 AM EDT
That's those server problems I explained a few weeks ago.

But like a woman, you NEVER remember what I explained to you.

You can't teach a woman ANYTHING, then they come back claiming they had to teach you how to flush the toilet.

Women are unteachable. And pathological liars.


You're full of crap. I do not lie. And I don't recall you telling me anything about server problems. You must have been talking to someone else.

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 20, 2009 10:01 AM EDT

...telling me to shut up or saying my parents made a mistake by bringing me into the world.



Hahahaha, I saw that one.

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 20, 2009 9:43 AM EDT
Tee hee.

Serves him right. He got me banished plenty.


How do you know it was him? It could have been anybody.

[cpqdk07191969]

Yep, now I'm getting that thingie with posts disappearing and reappearing.

For a minute there, I thought stuart was getting his revenge.

[cpqdk07191969]

test

[rf35]

Must have been all that wierd Japanese food...plugged up the plumbing.

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 19, 2009 11:12 PM EDT

"thingie" is a woman's technical term that I learned from my daughters. They are now old enough to start calling things "thingies" instead of learning what they're really called.

Sigh. They grow up so fast.


Yes, they do grow up fast.

So how many girls have you got? 2 girls and 2 boys?

Girls are better. : )

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 19, 2009 11:12 PM EDT
They have a new thingie when you get banished.

They delete only your most recent comments (within the past 12 hours or so) and leave older ones.


It wasn't that long ago and they were deleting ALL posts with that name. I remember when I got banned the last time (which was a REALLY long time ago), I was shocked to see that every single post for as long as I had that name were gone.

But anyways, the posts that remained of yours and gravy's were all recent ones, they weren't old ones. Like they weren't from hours before. In fact, gravy and been saying very bad things, like Charlie, but they remained and the ones where there was nothing wrong with them were gone.

All I know is that this website is screwy. I have had posts disappear for a few hours and then all of a sudden they are back.

[cpqdk07191969]

That's those server problems I explained a few weeks ago.

But like a woman, you NEVER remember what I explained to you.

You can't teach a woman ANYTHING, then they come back claiming they had to teach you how to flush the toilet.

Women are unteachable. And pathological liars.

[erasmus111]

by cpqdk07191969 July 19, 2009 11:10 PM EDT
But I'm a man, so I'm always wrong.

You might as well just look it up yourself in the first place.


Yeah, when you're right, you're right. : )

[cpqdk07191969]

But I'm a man. I must be wrong.

I just fascinate you.