The shuttle Endeavour mission has been extended one day; astronomers track a lost tool bag; and a possible space tourist who couldn't go into space wants his money back
NASA extended shuttle Endeavour's mission at the International Space Station (ISS) an extra day so astronauts were able to work out all the kinks in a new system that converts astronauts' urine into drinking water.
After being installed on the ISS, it failed multiple times, but the astronauts have used the extra time to get the $160 million device working normally. Water samples will be taken home on shuttle Endeavour or a later shuttle for additional testing on Earth before astronauts receive approval to drink the recycled urine.
NASA hopes the unit will help NASA and other space nations from transporting up to 7 tons of water to the ISS every year.
Astronomer Kevin Fetter recorded astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn Piper's tool bag floating in space, which she mistakenly let go of during a space walk outside of the ISS. The $100,000 tool bag joined as much as 13,000 other pieces of space junk aimlessly floating around in space.
Astronomers are increasingly concerned about space junk because even a small piece of material would cause great damage to the ISS or to a shuttle docked at the ISS.
Astronauts stationed to the ISS sometimes have little choice other than to release larger pieces of space junk into orbit.
Daisuke Enomoto, who couldn't go into orbit because of medical reasons, is suing Space Adventures to get the $21 million he is owed by the space travel company. Enomoto and Space Adventures first entered into a contract in November 2004, but he was disqualified in August 2006.
Enomoto paid a $2 million down payment and expected to be able to go on a spacewalk, or he would simply not go on the flight. Space Adventures said, as it tries to get the case dismissed, that Enomoto had kidney stones, which disqualified him from making the trip into space.
Space tourism is still a growing business, but similar legal cases could occur in the future, when interested space tourists give companies money and are later disqualified for physical health reasons.
"Well, we didn't have anyone in line that got shot waiting for our system." -- Nintendo of America Vice President Perrin Kaplan
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