Flooded $19 Million Space Toilet Repaired

[austin552]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534094,00.html?test=latestnews

$500k plunger?

[red-beard]

How would you like the bill from THAT plumber?

[fingpilot]

Can you imagine how much it cost the taxpayers to deal with the residual hazmat?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

When confronted with the issue of finding a suitable writing instrument that would work in "0G" conditions and the other extremes of space, we spent millions of dollars developing the so-called "space pens" that you can buy in gift shops these days for about $20 each (they use a pressurized ink cartridge in a rounded case contraption to prevent it from puncturing anything).

Confronted with the same problem, the Russians simply used pencils.

[dhoward]

Wiki -
Uses in the U.S. and Russian space programs
There exists a common urban legend claiming that the Americans spent $11 million developing the Space Pen, and the Russians used a pencil.[1] In fact, NASA programs have used pencils (for example a 1965 order of mechanical pencils[1]) but because of the danger that a broken-off pencil tip poses in zero gravity and the flammable nature of the wood present in pencils[1] a better solution was needed.

NASA never approached Paul Fisher to develop a pen, nor did Fisher receive any government funding for the pen's development. Fisher invented it independently, and then asked NASA to try it. After the introduction of the AG7 Space Pen, both the American and Soviet (later Russian) space agencies adopted it. Previously both the Russian and American astronauts used grease pencils and plastic slates.[2]

Another rumor has it that the Apollo 11 astronauts accidentally snapped off a switch which was necessary to permit them to fire the engine to return to the Earth; and that a Fisher Space Pen was used to press this button. While the incident did occur, Buzz Aldrin has stated that he in fact used a felt-tip pen for this.[3]

[cairns]

Damn facts. Always getting in the way of things.