Space shuttle Discovery delivers new toilet pump to International Space Station

In what is becoming a fascinating space-poop drama, the International Space Station had a fresh toilet pump delivered today by space shuttle Discovery. For the past couple weeks, astronauts were forced to perform manual flushes, but this pump promises to make things go down a bit easier. We're still under the impression that the toilet will be replaced in the Fall, so more relief is sure to come.

[Isak? @ Jun 3rd 2008 4:42AM]

It's always nice to know that million's of tax dollars can be spent on things as important as pooping.

[maty @ Jun 3rd 2008 5:16AM]

*Your* tax dollars. The rest of the world can sit back and have a good chuckle!

[pundit @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:30AM]

Who is "million" and where did he get his "of tax dollars"?

[Isak? @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:02AM]

That would be what we in “the biz” call a typo, and also why I agreed with the next post that the comments system needs an edit button. I hate double posts, and I didn’t see it until I had already hit the submit button.

Also, careful. As soon as you make a point to point out others small grammatical errors, you can often find yourself the target of grammatical witch hunts. Perhaps your obviously large amount of free time could be better spent getting off my nuts.

[Piper's son @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:14AM]

Well I thought it was funny...

[haX0r @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:35AM]

Well Americans just like to flush their money away. Look at Iraq.

[wrabbit @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:46AM]

How about you guys spend a month or two in zero gravity, with no functioning toilet and then tell us if you think a working pump is important or not.

Or better yet, how fast are you gonna call the plumber if you discover that your toilet doesn't flush? ...
Yeah thought so.

[Jon Doe. @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:37AM]

Yah vs. spending billions on the shit we are in in Iraq. Get a fucking clue. This is cheap in comparison to some of the crap the us gov is spending our money on.

[Isak? @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:41AM]

I'm not saying it's dumb to spend a huge amount of money on the pump, I'm saying that the entire space station idea is a money pit with a ridiculously low cost to benefit ratio. The station might be hailed as an international effort, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that we are funneling huge amounts of money into it. The entire space program is a waste of time, and money. We spend how much a year on a program which is praised for making a successful landing on another planet? How much is spent shipping people to a station so they can do tests on relatively useless things? Oh, advances came from experiments up there, but the cost it took to get those results was not worth it.

So yeah call me a little apathetic that we’re paying millions to send a couple hundred pounds into orbit so that people can drop one a deuce in an environment where they really aren’t getting much accomplished anyways.

[YetiJames @ Jun 3rd 2008 5:21AM]

Odd how a country which seems to be going down the toilet spends a large chunch of cash on one...

[YetiJames @ Jun 3rd 2008 5:23AM]

Yes yes i know... "chunk"... they really need to put a edit option in here!

[Isak? @ Jun 3rd 2008 5:36AM]

It doesn't matter. You still win the thread.

I'm with you on the edit button. Come on engadget!

[Josh L @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:32AM]

Russia seems like they're moving up in the world these days, not really "going down the toilet".

[michael @ Jun 3rd 2008 5:37AM]

The toilet is gonna stay up there, the ISS will get a second one. This one will be in the American part of the station, but it will be a Russian model (like the broken one). NASA actually bought it for 19 Million dollar, put it in an International Standard Payload Rack and will install it in Destiny (The US Laboratory. I guess they will install it in Node 3 as soon as it is in space.) as soon as the Shuttle brings it up there.

They need the second toilet because it is planned to extend the crew from three to six. There really seems to be nothing fundamentally wrong with the toilet and it already worked perfectly for years and years. This only really became a problem because they had only two defective spare pumps on board to replace the old broken one. The ISS has enough spare parts up there, but if they are broken you really are in trouble.

[Fitz @ Jun 4th 2008 12:47AM]

So then they're not going to just jettison the old one?

Hmmm...guess I won't need my umbrella this weekend.

[user6300 @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:03AM]

I am just wondering, why is there ONE toilet in FIRST place?

I mean, if we build a place to stay for 4 people, wont it be natural to have atleast 2 toilets?

NASA missing CS?

[Mike @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:11AM]

One toilet costs $19 million (and that's a cheap price for a closed-system waste management and sanitation system!). Also, it wasn't just NASA's decision, as there are other nations involved in the ISS.

[michael @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:12AM]

Like I wrote in the comment above yours: they will get a second one. Some Shuttle will fly it up there. It’s built into an International Standard Payload Rack (that’s what the USA, Europe and Japan use in their modules to build in experiments, avionics, toilets, etc.) but it’s Russian. NASA bought it from the Russians for 19 million dollar (developing one would be more expensive). One reason why the Russians are so important in this project is not their cash but their experience.

This new toilet will be located in Destiny. (The Laboratory. Don’t worry, the US can use a lot of the Japanese and European racks for their experiments because they brought the two modules up there. Something around 50%.) Maybe they will move it to Node 3 (that will not be much of a node, more like a living quarter) when it’s finally up there.

They need an additional one to accomodate the six (not four) people that are planned to be up there constantly some months in the future.

[Cory @ Jun 3rd 2008 6:51AM]

It's funny how all the press on this mission is about the toilet and not the 1 billion dollar space lab its bringing up.

[Mike @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:10AM]

It's also funny how all the idiots of the world are blaming and making fun of the US over this when the toilet is Russian-made and the space station is an INTERNATIONAL project. The US gets to fix the problem AND take all the crap from the morons of the world. It's a wonder I haven't seen comments blaming the Myanmar cyclone response on the US....I probably just missed them.

[michael @ Jun 3rd 2008 10:36AM]

Who blamed the US? It’s just a funny story. Nothing more. I didn’t see anyone blame the USA.

[Idlemind @ Jun 3rd 2008 10:16AM]

Guilty... I didnt read it either. Its all over the news. But it seems like something "we" would do..


Remember the $400 hammers and $800 toilet seats of the 80's and 90's?

[Jaque-o @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:06AM]

Just poop out the window like REAL men do !!


...Wait

[aardvark sandwich @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:34AM]

If that doesnt work, try jiggling the handle.

[Elora HRanma @ Jun 3rd 2008 7:50AM]

'Household' is the best description this could get! xD

And how do they manage the turns with all the schedules thay have up there? Do you get a fiber snack half an hour before your time comes?

[Skipaan @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:17AM]

The next crisis will be when they run out of toilet paper

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jun 3rd 2008 8:39AM]

Can't they just toss the poop out in space? Seems like there'd be plenty of room in the solar system. If they could aim it toward the sun, in time it would self-incinerate.

[Greg @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:04AM]

Self incinerate? What do they eat up there?

[acabtp @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:26AM]

It's funny, all this talk about "poop-this", "poop-that", "poop out the window"... when the problem is with liquid waste collection, and not related to poop at all. Way to have no idea what you're talking about Engadget and commenters!

[Isak? @ Jun 3rd 2008 12:00PM]

Pee isn't nearly as funny... :(

[haX0r @ Jun 3rd 2008 9:39AM]

Can't they just get a Wet and Dry vac and some plastic bags? They throw out the trash in space anyways. That'll save them about $999,000 (including bags of course).

[Tim @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:30AM]

You are no longer on my list of people to call when the toilet breaks...

[Isak? @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:59AM]

@ john doe:

You get a fucking clue. Just because it's cheap doesn't mean it is pointless and trivial. Just because it is only a million dollars while hundreds of millions are spent in other, equally useless areas, does not make it any better.

This isn't a debate about Iraq, or the appropriateness of spending there, this is merely me trying to make a joke about large amounts of money being spent on poop. If you want to try and trap me into feeling dumb because of your lame arguments than I would advise you to try again.

Oh, and sorry for the double post. I try to avoid them if I can help it.

[Derek @ Jun 3rd 2008 1:08PM]

So it's true, most Engadget readers ARE children!

[Todd Benson @ Jun 3rd 2008 2:40PM]

| Space shuttle Discovery delivers new toilet pump to International Space Station |

Astronauts relieved.

[christopheraven @ Jun 4th 2008 11:35PM]

"Pump Delivery Averts Evacuation"

no wait....