Atlantis Launches: ISS Resupply Mission Begins Critical Phase
The toilet didn't work. That's what nearly killed the space station before STS-101 ever left the pad. Atlantis hauled up a replacement toilet, new batteries, and enough spare parts to keep the ISS breathing for another year. Mission Commander James Halsell and his crew spent a week installing what amounted to cosmic duct tape—because the most expensive construction project in human history, orbiting at 17,500 mph, was one bathroom failure away from evacuation. They fixed it. The station's been continuously occupied ever since. Twenty-four years and counting.
May 19, 2000
26 years ago
What Else Happened on May 19
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