NASA Gives Space Station Crew 'Go' to Drink Recycled Water

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May 20, 2009

Katherine Trinidad 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1100 
katherine.trinidad@xxxxxxxx 

Kelly Humphries 
Johnson Space Center, Houston 
281-483-5111 
kelly.o.humphries@xxxxxxxx 

RELEASE: 09-096

NASA GIVES SPACE STATION CREW 'GO' TO DRINK RECYCLED WATER

HOUSTON -- NASA's Mission Control gave the Expedition 19 astronaut 
crew aboard the International Space Station a "go" to drink water 
that the station's new recycling system has purified. 

Mission Control radioed the news to the crew Wednesday, following a 
report from the Water Recovery System team that station program 
managers approved. The decision is an important milestone in the 
development of the station's environmental and life support systems, 
which will begin supporting six-person crews at the end of May. 

Expedition 19 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike 
Barratt and Koichi Wakata celebrated the decision with a toast in the 
Destiny laboratory. 

"This has been the stuff of science fiction. Everybody's talked about 
recycling water in a closed loop system, but nobody's ever done it 
before. Here we are today with the first round of recycled water," 
said Barratt. "We're really happy for this day and for the team that 
put this together. This is the kind of technology that will get us to 
the moon and further." 

"This is an important milestone in the development of the space 
station," said Kirk Shireman, International Space Station deputy 
program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This 
system will reduce the amount of water we must launch to the station 
once the shuttle retires and also test out a key technology required 
for sending humans on long duration missions to the moon and Mars." 

Space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission delivered the Water Recovery 
System to the station in November 2008. Mission Specialist Don Pettit 
and Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke installed the equipment 
before Endeavour's departure. The system has been processing urine 
into purified water since shuttle Discovery's STS-119 crew delivered 
and installed a replacement Urine Processing Assembly in March. The 
system is tied into the station's Waste and Hygiene Compartment 
toilet and recovers and recycles moisture from the station's 
atmosphere. 

The crews of STS-126, Expedition 18 and STS-119 returned samples of 
the recycled water to Earth. A total of 5.28 gallons (20 liters) of 
recycled water were tested for purity at the Water and Microbiology 
Laboratories at Johnson. A special Space Station Program Control 
Board meeting on April 27 reviewed the analysis, which showed 
contaminants were well below established limits, and concurred that 
the water is safe and healthy to drink. Mission managers elected to 
postpone consumption until a sticky check valve in the Urine 
Processing Assembly was removed May 18. 

Space station crews will monitor the purity of the recycled water with 
on-board equipment and periodically send down samples for testing on 
Earth. 

Video of the Expedition 19 crew toast will air on NASA Television's 
Video File. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, 
visit: 



http://www.nasa.gov/ntv 


For more information about the space station and the new recycling 
system, visit: 



http://www.nasa.gov/station 

	
-end-



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