NASA Aborts Plan to Flush Questionable Mir Water Supply

HOUSTON â€”  NASA officials turned down a request from the crew of space station Mir to use the shuttle Atlantis to flush away gallons of water thought to be tainted by poisonous antifreeze, space agency officials said Tuesday.

Mission managers decided there was no time to consider the safety implications, said Frank Culbertson, who oversees missions to Mir for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Atlantis has been berthed at the orbiting Russian space station since Friday night for a crew exchange and to deliver much-needed equipment and supplies.

“We’ll look at how we can take care of this problem in the future,� he said. “It’s a good idea. It just needs to be done in an orderly fashion.�

The astronauts and cosmonauts were well into preparations to flush the water overboard through the shuttle’s waste-water vent when mission control informed the crew that the plan had been aborted.

Mir’s Russian crew was eager to dump the water to clear some of the clutter that has accumulated in the space station’s seven modules.

Mission managers were concerned that the plastic bags containing the water could burst or leak and damage the shuttle’s delicate electronics.

The 79 gallons of water had been recycled from Mir’s air supply but were ruled unsafe to drink because of possible contamination by ethylene glycol antifreeze that had leaked from Mir’s cooling system.

The shuttle planned to return to Earth with samples of the water for testing.

The crew of Atlantis had completed 87% of its deliveries to Mir and was on track to uncouple from the space station as planned this evening, mission operations director Lee Briscoe said.