Live in Orbit: "No joy" with urine processor

Today's efforts to run a repaired urine processor on the International Space Station have been put on hold.

Engineers have been trying to determine why flow rates through the device were low. Rick Davis, a spacecraft communicator in Houston, said troubleshooting since this morning has produced "no joy" in resolving the problem.

"Sorry about that, guys," said Mike Fincke, the station's Expedition 18 commander, who was setting up the processor for a wet run.

NASA was hopeful the processor would work after a new 180-poound distillation assembly brought up by shuttle Discovery was installed two days ago, and a dry test run on Saturday was successful.

The processor hasn't worked since after Christmas, weeks after shuttle Endeavour's crew delivered it in November.

The system is intended to recycle crew members' urine, in addition to sweat and other condensate, into drinkable water, and it's critical to long-term plans to double station crews to six people.

NASA plans to expand the crews in May, and can get by for a while without the processor by using water created by shuttle fuel cells and delivered by cargo vehicles.

A successful run of the system today could have produced a water sample for Discovery to take home for testing. It wasn't immediately clear what the next steps are, and when work on the processor will resume.

Discovery's crew has had a quiet morning of rest, calls to family members and exercise.

They'll eat a mid-day meal soon, and then get back to work transferring supplies between the station and shuttle and preparing for the 13-day mission's third and final spacewalk Monday.

The crew, now more than half-way through the mission, is due to depart the station Wednesday and land Saturday afternoon.

IMAGES: Click to enlarge the NASA TV image above of the water recycling system, including a urine processor, aboard the International Space Station. Below, in February, the replacement distillation assembly was checked out in the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. The unit is part of the Urine Processing Assembly that removes impurities from urine in an early stage of the recycling process. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller