Space station toilet back in business

By Irene Klotz

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Cosmonaut-plumber Oleg Kononenko tackled the critical job of fixing the sole toilet aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday, with apparently successful results.

"The toilet apparently has been repaired and is available for use," NASA's mission commentator Rob Navias said, following the 2-1/2-hour maintenance call.

Kononenko, the station's lead flight engineer, did the honors of replacing a pump needed to filter urine so the waste can be properly processed. The Russian-made toilet has been working only intermittently for about 10 days, requiring time-consuming manual flushes four to five times a day.

Though a critical part of the $100 billion space station, NASA officials said that even if the toilet wasn't working, the station crew could make do with bags and other special equipment to dispose of urine -- and feces if necessary -- and would not leave the outpost. The toilet's solid-waste disposal system has been working without problems.

"Neither one of these are particularly pleasant, but certainly are tried and true devices for their intended purposes," said Kirk Shireman, deputy manager of the station program.

The U.S. space agency made room for the new pump aboard space shuttle Discovery, which arrived at the outpost on Monday for an eight-day construction and servicing call. The main purpose of the mission was to deliver Japan's new research laboratory, Kibo, to the station.

The 37-foot-long (11 meter-long) module was bolted to the

orbital outpost on Tuesday. The Discovery crew spent Wednesday hooking up power lines, communications equipment and other gear before the hatch to the new room will be opened later in the day.

The Japanese laboratory is the most elaborate and largest of all the modules aboard the station, with its own storage room, airlock, robot arms and exposed platform for telescopes and other science gear that will operate in the open environment of space. The porch is set to be delivered during a shuttle mission next year. The storage room was delivered in March.

NASA has 10 missions remaining, including a planned October servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, before retiring the shuttle fleet in 2010.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Cynthia Osterman)