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Mmm, Mmm, Good! Astros Toast With Recycled Urine

New recycling system will let NASA boost size of station's crew

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted May 21, 2009 3:44 AM CDT

(Newser) – The crew of the International Space Station toasted successful testing of their new water-recycling system with sips of recycled sweat and urine yesterday, CNET reports. "The taste is great," US astronaut Michael Barratt said as his Russian colleague Gennady Zyuganov chased a floating mouthful in zero gravity. "As Gennady is showing you, it's perfectly clear and worth chasing in zero G here."

"This is the kind of technology that'll get us to the moon and further, we hope," Barratt said. "We're just really, really happy to be here drinking this today." The system is key to NASA's plans to double the size of the station's crew to six. The cost of hauling water into space is so high that the $250 million system is expected to pay for itself in savings in a few years.

[Images (2)]

[Videos (1)]

The new $250 million water-recycling system came to the ISS with the Harmony node last year, but a replacement centrifuge had to be sent up in March. (AP Photo/NASA)

ISS crew Koichi Wakata, Gennady Padalka, and Michael Barratt take ceremonial sips of recycled urine. (NASA TV)

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Crew members aboard the International Space Station drink "recycled" water for the first time. (AssociatedPress)

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Mmm, Mmm, Good! Astros Toast With Recycled Urine