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Some Space Shuttle stats

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  • 19-07-2009 5:40pm
    #1
    Beeker
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,643 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Media sources are claiming that this is the first time 13 people have been in space together. This is incorrect. The first time was in March 1995 with 7 people on Endeavour during STS-67 and 6 on board the MIR space station. This is the first time that 13 have been together on the same vehicle.
    This is the 127 Space Shuttle Flight since STS-1 in April 1981.
    The 158 US manned space flight since Mercury-3 in May 1961.
    It carried the 500th person to enter space.
    It is Endeavours 23 flight.
    It is the 29th visit of a Shuttle to the Station in 10 years.


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    #2
    The Hill Billy
    Registered Users Posts: 22,754 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    13 people on a single spacecraft can bring its own unique problems - such as the toilet flooding. Reported on BBC News this morning.
    BBC News wrote:
    Space station toilet breaks down

    The main toilet has broken down on the International Space Station (ISS), currently home to a record 13 astronauts, Nasa said.

    Mission Control told the crew to hang an "out of service" sign until the toilet can be fixed.

    The crew of the shuttle Endeavour is confined to using the craft's loo. ISS residents are using a back-up toilet in the Russian part of the station.

    If repairs fail, Apollo-era urine collection bags are on hand, Nasa said.

    "We don't yet know the extent of the problem," flight director Brian Smith told reporters, adding that the toilet troubles were "not going to be an issue" for now.

    Bad plumbing?

    The main toilet, a multi-million-dollar Russian-built unit, was flown up and installed on the US side of the space station last year.

    It had broken down once before, requiring a rush delivery of a replacement pump by the shuttle Discovery in 2008.

    And another toilet-related row broke out earlier this year, when a Russian cosmonaut complained that he was no longer allowed to use the US toilet because of billing and cost issues.

    Despite the latest housekeeping setback, astronauts managed to transfer spare parts from the shuttle Endeavour to the ISS on Sunday, the second day of a planned 11-day mission.

    Nasa was also investigating why Endeavour's tank shed an unusually large amount of insulating foam during its launch.


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