Space shuttle Discovery sits ready on launch pad 39a for the STS-124 mission to the international space station at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, May 29, 2008. Discovery is scheduled to launch Saturday. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Posted on 05/29/2008 2:07:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After being rushed in from Russia, a toilet pump was loaded into space shuttle Discovery on Thursday just in time for this weekend's liftoff to the international space station, where the lone commode is acting up.
A NASA employee based in Moscow hand-carried the pump on a commercial flight that touched down Wednesday night. Within hours, the pump and related equipment were packed away aboard Discovery.
Discovery is scheduled to blast off Saturday on a 14-day mission. The main delivery item is a 37-foot-long Japanese lab; it will be the biggest room once installed at the space station.
Good weather was forecast for the late afternoon launch, and the countdown was going well.
While the three space station residents are eager to see the Kibo lab, the bathroom situation has become a more pressing issue. For the past week, the two Russian and one American men have had to periodically manually flush the urine side of the Russian-built toilet. The job takes 10 minutes and requires two people.
"Insert that into your daily life and you can see it would be quite inconvenient," Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy space station program manager, said at a news conference.
The solid-waste part of the toilet is working properly.
The American on board, Garrett Reisman, will return to Earth aboard Discovery after a three-month stay. His replacement, Gregory Chamitoff, will have to deal with any lingering bathroom problems.
NASA plans to launch another Russian toilet aboard a space shuttle later this year, along with other equipment that will enable the space station crew size to double.
Space shuttle Discovery sits ready on launch pad 39a for the STS-124 mission to the international space station at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, May 29, 2008. Discovery is scheduled to launch Saturday. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
A pelican sits atop a navigation marker near launch pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida where NASA workers are preparing the space shuttle Discovery for launch May 29, 2008. Launch of the spacecraft with seven astronauts aboard is scheduled for May 31 on a mission to the International Space Station. REUTERS/Scott Audette (UNITED STATES)
There’s going to be some good inside jokes among the astronauts when they deliver this hardware. I wish I could be there to participate.
I could eat a hefty bowl of lima beans before launch and inagurate the new facilities for them. I’m sure that appreciative high fives would go all around.
Must watch out for those pesky floaters in space!
Hurry, they must be feeling some urgency by now.
Oh the relief. Hope they haven’t been holding it in too long.
A technician loads replacement parts onto space shuttle Discovery
for the International Space Station's toilet. The crews of Discovery
and the station will install the new components during STS-124.
Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
NASA TV - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
That's one big-a55 dog.
John Kerry, is that you?
Speaking of bathroom humor, the bureaucracy in NASA is way over due for an enema.
(yes, I'm feeling old)
NASA mission: To go where man has never gone before.
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