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IT MAY be the shuttle’s last mission, but it is certainly not the most glamorous. On Sunday, shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station, carrying utilitarian items including a new tank for a urine recycling system.
The tank will hold toxic, concentrated waste brine left over from the space station’s water recycling system, which extracts drinkable water from urine and other waste. Unlike the tank it will replace, which is returned to the ground for disposal, the new one can be emptied into larger holding tanks on docked cargo ships for disposal in orbit.
The shuttle is also carrying an experiment that will test satellite refuelling technology for use by future robotic servicing missions.
Atlantis, which launched on 8 July, will return to Earth for the last time on 21 July. For the next few years,