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.

[RC @ Jun 4th 2008 10:05PM]

Why not post some Kibo videos or something. It's pretty neat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qK2bdrS7E8

[Sam Zebian @ Jun 4th 2008 10:17PM]

Dude that vid is sweet

[tb @ Jun 4th 2008 10:55PM]

wow that lab is huge

[imacmatt09 @ Jun 4th 2008 11:01PM]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/28/international-space-stations-commode-gets-fixed/

Dupe?

[Aguiluz @ Jun 4th 2008 11:51PM]

Impossible dupe. Or at least what I think is that this being a dupe is impossible. It has been written by the same person.

[Ron Smith @ Jun 4th 2008 10:09PM]

Come on engadget, show more about Kibo. People here are missing the awesome zero-g acrobatics not seen since skylab. here is a link to demonstrate : http://youtube.com/watch?v=5qK2bdrS7E8

[CharlieX @ Jun 4th 2008 10:13PM]

Kibo schmibo. If you have 1 toilet - and you can't pee in the bushes because there AREN'T any bushes - then repairing the solo toilet in outer space is probably a little more critical. Ya know? When you gotta go, you gotta go.

[Ron Smith @ Jun 4th 2008 10:19PM]

There is a toilet in Soyuz and shuttle plus the crew had back-up Apollo style bags. Plus the station toilet WAS usable as was, it just took ten minutes to flush. Everyone made a big deal over a normal station keeping task that pops up just about before every shuttle flight, while Kibo is a $10 billion dollar investment over 20 years by JAXA, which seems more important to you?

[Aguiluz @ Jun 4th 2008 11:53PM]

"I GOTTA GO, I GOTTA GO NOW!!!!"

- Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko

[Jimmy Jones @ Jun 4th 2008 10:17PM]

Engadget ---- just imagine your engadget crew (all of 'em) didn't take a shit for 1 week .....I can imagine the awful smell that comes out of the main offices ..... ahh imagine holding it down for some crew to cruise 10847574 mph to fix the b/r? i'll just open the door, poop and let if flow along w/gravity.... someday it'll land on earth ........err may be on Mars ....that'll be a good sign of life on Mars...

[J L @ Jun 4th 2008 10:19PM]

"...running a trio of tests." I can think of two tests he performed....

[Ron Smith @ Jun 4th 2008 10:20PM]

flushed it three times

[Adam @ Jun 4th 2008 10:49PM]

@Ron


Way to ruin it

[Chris @ Jun 4th 2008 10:58PM]

Step 1: Pee
Step 2: Crap
Step 3: Flush

[paul34 @ Jun 4th 2008 10:20PM]

Oh come on... it's not like they were holding it for that long. Use some common sense people.

It is possible to manually flush the toilet but obviously, that is not desirable whatsoever... especially since it is time consuming and uhh, requires TWO astronauts.

[Mile @ Jun 4th 2008 10:31PM]

I hope everything came 'out' okay!

[cayton @ Jun 4th 2008 10:34PM]

How would you like to be the person who tested it...

[Erik @ Jun 4th 2008 11:21PM]

I would've gone with 'riveting crapper caper' but that's just me.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 4th 2008 11:21PM]

so, do they flush shit out into space or do they store it?

I think it would be cool seeing a piece of shit floating past the window and then burning up from re entry heat.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Jun 4th 2008 11:45PM]

All hail the importance of the toilet bowl!!

[christopheraven @ Jun 5th 2008 12:09AM]

imagine how terrible it'd have been had the astronauts had sonic diarrhea.

[Gavin @ Jun 5th 2008 12:55AM]

...and once fixed a slurry of events followed.

[kappa @ Jun 5th 2008 2:22AM]

The funny part is that the shitter part was working just fine it was the urinal portion that was malfunctioning.

A lot of a hype for piss nothin

[lance @ Jun 5th 2008 6:36AM]

what a load of crap.

[Bob @ May 6th 2009 4:00PM]

I need a place where I can go.
I need it soon before I blow up.
I need a place where I can throw up
Replicated food that's even worse than home.

I need a place for my relief.
I need a room for quick debriefing.
Twice a day and once each evening
I need a place where I can be alone.

I don't care if the ship's high tech.
I don't care if it has a holodeck.
I don't care about life support.
Okay, I guess I need the life support.
But anything beyond that I don't care
As long as there's a place somewhere a man can go.

...

The Comforts of Home
Bob Kanefsky

http://www.mp3.com/media_player/viewer.php?action=launch_player_by_id&ref_id=21772321&ref_type_id=3&edid=&ptid=&ont_id=