Urine recycler part of shuttle cargo

HOUSTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour is delivering a toilet upgrade for the U.S. Destiny lab on the International Space Station, NASA says.

Part of the cargo carried into orbit in Friday's launch of the Endeavour was a new zero-gravity toilet for Destiny that will recycle astronauts' urine into drinkable water, helping to conserve 743 gallons of water per year aboard the space station, The Washington Post reported.

The only toilet aboard the space station has been in the Russian lab. Urine has been vented into space in a costly process. The new system will distill, filter, heat and chemically transmogrify the waste liquid in a move that will help increase the capacity of the Destiny lab from three to six people, the newspaper said.

"I've sipped the water. It tastes like water," Jennifer Morcone, a NASA spokesman, told the Post. Even with the assurances of purity from engineers, astronauts might not be willing to try it, she admitted, even though tests have proven successful.

"As soon as the cap comes off and it breathes for a minute, it doesn't smell like much at all," she said.

The Endeavour is set to dock with the space station Sunday, NASA said.