CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts hitched a giant shipping crate full of home-improvement “goodies” to the international space station Monday, a critical step for boosting the population in orbit.
It was the first major job for the crews of the linked space station and space shuttle Endeavour, and highlighted their first full day together.
“We’re here to work,” the space station’s skipper, Mike Fincke, called down. “This is the can-do crew.”
More than 14,000 pounds of gear was stuffed into the 21-foot container that flew on Endeavour and was hoisted onto the space station. It held an extra toilet, refrigerator and kitchenette, exercise machine and sleeping compartments, and a system for converting urine into drinking water. Fincke called it “the goodies . . ., things needed for an extreme home makeover.”
NASA cannot double the number of space station residents from three to six next year until all the equipment — most notably the urine-to-water system — has been installed and tested. Additional equipment will be launched in February.
Until now, the space station has been a one-kitchen, one-bath, three- bedroom house. That third bedroom is a makeshift nook in the U.S. lab. The orbiting outpost is on the verge of becoming a two-kitchen, two-bath, five-bedroom home and will have six full bedrooms in a few more months.
