"The seven-member shuttle crew will be delivering the final parts needed for an expanded solar energy power system. It also will deliver a replacement for a failed unit in a system that converts urine to drinkable water, NASA said."

This is the last paragraph from the news report of the shuttle mission Discovery. The mission was first delayed for a week or so, but just yesterday has successfully docked with the international space station. Just for fun, re-read that last sentence up there.

The space station had a system that turns their piss into drinkable water. That alone sounds pretty sick, but it's a space station in orbit where water is scarce, so we can forgive them. I just hate to be the astronaut who first discovered that this converter had failed. You can picture him spitting the piss out into the zero-gravity cabin; droplets floating towards the other astronauts who try desperately with swimming motions to get out of the way.

Remember the space shuttle was also delayed for a week. And the piss-to-water converter was probably broken long before that; it's not like they can send up a space shuttle in 2 weeks notice...

I used to want to be an astronaut when I was little. I kind of changed my mind now.