Astronauts Drink their Recycled Urine for the First Time
Posted on 08. Jun, 2009 by flyingeraser in Space Exploration
“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… 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.”
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, May 20, 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.