The new toilet in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module aboard the International Space Station, currently hosting a combined crew of 13, malfunctioned today. Flight controllers told the astronauts to use toilets in the Russian part of the station and aboard the shuttle Endeavour until the problem is resolved.

"When you get a second, if you could put an out-of-service note on the WHC (waste and hygiene compartment) and advise the crew members that station crew members will have to use the (Russian toilet) and shuttle crew members on the shuttle until further notice," Hal Getzelman radioed from mission control.

European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne acknowledge the instructions and asked if engineers had an estimate on how long it might take to get the toilet might back in operation.

"No, we don't have a good estimate," Getzelman said. "What happened, the pre-treat (chemical), we think, flooded the pump separator and we may have got some fluid where we didn't want it and it'll take us a while to work through a procedure to recover."

"OK, Hal," De Winne replied. "I have some (time) available the entire day, I'm available to work the procedure."

"OK, we may have some quicker actions to inspect, but we'll advise you when those are ready."

About a half-hour later, Getzelman told De Winne to don safety goggles and protective gear before opening access panels to determine if critical components were hot due to a chemical reaction related to the initial problem.

The space station is equipped with a Russian toilet in the Zvezda command module and the new U.S.-supplied WHC in the Destiny module. Two toilets are required for the station's permanent six-member crew.

For Endeavour's mission, four of the shuttle astronauts were asked to use the station facilities to avoid waste water dumps from the shuttle during the docked phase of the mission to avoid contaminating a newly installed Japanese experiment platform that was attached to the Kibo lab module Saturday.

"One of the interesting things this time, when we add the Japanese Exposed Facility, we'd like not to perform waste water dumps out of the shuttle," Kirk Shireman, the deputy space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said before launch.

"So we're actually going to have a number of the shuttle crew members use the ISS toilets for some period of time during the mission so we don't fill up the shuttle waste tanks and have to perform a dump. The shuttle can undock and perform the dump when it's away from the ISS."

It was not immediately known how long the U.S. station toilet could be out of action without causing additional problems for the crew.

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VIDEO: UPDATE ON ENDEAVOUR'S HEAT SHIELD CHECKS PLAY
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VIDEO: STEP-BY-STEP SUMMARY OF SPACEWALK NO. 1 PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE CREW WELCOMED ABOARD STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR DOCKS TO THE SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS' ONBOARD CAMCORDER FOOTAGE PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE FLIES OUT IN FRONT OF STATION PLAY
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VIDEO: PREVIEW ANIMATION OF HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
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