Astronauts Don Protective Gear to Fix ISS Toilet

Tom Mashburn during Monday's EVA. Credit: NASA

Space station astronauts repaired a broken toilet in the U.S Destiny laboratory today, avoiding a potentially messy situation. With the shuttle-space station complex currently home to a record combined crew of 13 astronauts and cosmonauts, fixing the toilet was of utmost importance. ISS crew members Gennady Padalka and Frank De Winne were told to don safety goggles and protective gear before opening the toilet's access panels. They replaced a half-dozen components during work Sunday and Monday repairing the defective toilet with spare parts on the orbiting outpost.

While toilet repairs were going on, shuttle astronauts David Wolf and Thomas Marshburn completed the second spacewalk of the STS-127 mission, during a day filled with remembrances and tributes to the Apollo 11 moon landing.
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NASA Science News for July 20, 2009

The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century takes place this Wednesday, July 22nd. The path of totality crosses many major cities, setting the stage for possibly the best-observed eclipse in human history.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/20jul_longestsolareclipse.htm?list1035898