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Water Recovery System, International Space Station

Location

Destiny Laboratory

Operating principle

Distillation/filtration

Distillation unit

Rotating assembly

Associated treatment

Free gas and solid material removal, filtration, high-temperature catalysis

Water/consumables reduction

6.8t (15,000lbs) a year

Crew supported

6

Total “home improvement” project cost

$250m

Life support research began

Late 1960s

The first part of ECLSS, launched on Shuttle Discovery

July 2006

Water reclamation unit arrived on Shuttle Endeavour

16 November 2008

Unit fully operational

25 November 2008

Initial quality testing regime concludes

March 2009

Crew increase scheduled

May 2009

Client

International Space Station

Design and development engineers

Nasa Marshall Space Flight Centre and Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International

ISS partners

Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency, Russia and the US

Additional ISS equipment

Brazil and Italy
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