International Space Station's lavatory gets repaired, another saga ends

We can't say we're terribly saddened that this riveting caper has finally ended -- after all, the poor crew needs a reliable place to unload, right? Shortly after the space shuttle Discovery delivered a new pump for the jury-rigged commode, Oleg Kononenko -- who we hear is now widely regarded as a galactic hero -- spent around two hours installing the hardware and running a trio of tests. After everything was tightened up and functioning as advertised, the crew presumably relieved themselves just before carrying on with the installation of the recently acquired Kibo lab. Crisis averted.