From water to urine in space

ONE of the last experiments ever performed on a space shuttle may one day help develop an efficient way to convert astronauts’ urine into drinking water.

Atlantis is carrying the experiment on its STS-135 mission — the last in the shuttle programme’s storied history — which landed on Thursday morning.

During their last hours in space, Atlantis’s crew is testing how an established, self-contained water-filtration system works in microgravity, in the hopes that astronauts can use the technology in the future.