Space Station Urine Recycler Fails Test - Repair Made

Around noon on Sunday Mission Control in Houston gave International Space Station Commander Mike Fincke a "go" to begin processing the first Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) sample since a new Distillation Assembly was installed in the UPA earlier in the mission. It usually takes between four and five hours to process samples. At approximately 12:46 PM on Sunday Mission Control began to evaluate an issue with the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) because the rate of urine flowing into the UPA was much slower than expected. NASA said the issue is not related to the newly-installed Distillation Assembly but they terminated the troubleshooting of the UPA for the day.

Later in the afternoon International Space Station Commander, Mike Fincke replaced a filter assembly in the UPA. NASA hopes this modification will increase the rate of urine flowing into the UPA. Fincke is filling the UPA with urine and, if all goes well, will begin to process a sample. It takes four to five hours to process a complete sample. We should know something by tomorrow if the new test goes as planned.

The Urine Recycler System on the ISS turns urine and sweat into clean drinking water. The station crew depends now on water carried up aboard a space shuttle or cargo rocket. But an operational water recycler is expected to cut that need by 65 percent by producing about 6,000 pounds of potable water each year. That's enough fresh water to allow the station to host six crew members instead of three. The recycling system can recycle about 93% of the water that goes through the system.