Astronauts Have a Toilet Again—Oh, and a $1 Billion Science Lab

The toilet on the International Space Station was finally fixed yesterday, provoking a sigh of relief from astronauts and a wave of giggles from the earthlings here below. The zero-gravity toilet broke two weeks ago, and couldn't be fixed until the space shuttleDiscovery arrived at the station with a load of spare parts. Discovery had a trip to the station scheduled anyway, to deliver a $1 billion science lab that's now the largest component of the station. But while mission command may have hoped to use the shuttle's trip to educate the public on zero-gravity science experiments, the emergency toilet repair took the spotlight instead. Yesterday, astronauts installed a new pump in the toilet to repair the one that failed.