Astronauts fix toilet in space

HOUSTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Astronauts on the International Space Station performed some fairly down to earth maintenance Monday, fixing a broken toilet, NASA said.

A pump on the toilet that was recently installed in the U.S. laboratory at the station began to malfunction Sunday. The pump is designed to inject chemicals into the system that help separate liquids from solid waste, The New York Times reported Monday.

Col. Gennady I. Padalka, the station commander, and flight engineer Frank De Winne got the toilet working Monday, the newspaper said.

While the toilet was out of commission the seven members of the Endeavour crew used the facilities on the shuttle, which docked with the ISS Friday, and the six ISS crew members used a toilet in the Russian module.

Other ISS activities Monday included a spacewalk by mission specialists David Wolf and Thomas Marshburn, who transferred spare parts to an external storage platform.

As the astronauts performed their tasks, NASA observed the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing by U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.