Live in orbit: Post-repair tests under way

BLOGGER UPDATE: (7:30 PM): NASA has run into trouble again. The urine processing assembly once again shut down after initial start-up, failing to go through a four-hour processesing cycles as it should. NASA mission commentator Brandi Dean said engineers are trying to sort out the trouble.

BLOGGER UPDATE(6:23 PM): NASA Mission Control just voiced up words that indicate the uring processing assembly is working as intended. The crew was asked to notify ground specialists in the event that another system shutdown occurs.

A troublesome urine processing assembly is being tested on the International Space Station after a three-hour effort to repair the newly delivered hardware.

Station skipper Mike Fincke, with an assist from Endeavour mission specialist Don Pettit, used a cordless space drill to unbolt a system centrifuge and the remove vibration dampers that apparently caused unexpected shutdowns during start-up operations on Friday and Saturday.

The centrifuge then was hard-mounted within its refrigerator-sized rack in the station and post-repair tests are getting under way.

The urine processing assembly is a critical part of a new treatment system delivered to the station by Endeavour's astronauts.

The full Water Recovery System is designed to convert urine, sweat and condensate into drinking water. The system must be operating properly for NASA and its international partners to expand the size of resident crews on the station to six from three -- a key milestone in a decade-long construction project.

Fincke is fairly certain the repairs worked.

"We're very hopeful," he said. "If not, we have a few other tricks up our sleeve."

In a worst case, the urine processing assembly could be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour. In that case, though, a refurbished unit would not be delivered until the planned flight to the station of shuttle Discovery in February.

A 90-day check-out then would be required. Accomplishing that in time to expand crew size next May might be problemmatic.