NASA plans to take "going green'' to new heights with a shuttle launch scheduled for today by delivering a device to the space station that recycles astronauts' urine and sweat into drinking water. The distiller is part of a home-improvement mission to double the station's living capacity to six. The Endeavour also is to carry two bedrooms, a gym, a second toilet and an extra refrigerator. The launch is set for 7:55 p.m. local time from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The US$250 million water processor, built by NASA, will be the first in orbit. It scrubs urine and perspiration and returns more than 90 percent of it as potable water. That will save about 7 tons of water that now is rocketed to orbit each year.  "Would I drink it? Absolutely,'' said Marybeth Edeen, manager of hardware development at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. ``Astronauts who have sampled the water say it's odd, because it has zero taste and seems flat.''

The distilled product lacks the chlorine flavor of tap water or the minerals of spring water. About the size of two household refrigerators, the purifier also captures airborne moisture from the crew's breath or wet towels left out to dry.  Any waste will be jettisoned from the space station to burn up in the atmosphere. The recycled water won't be ready to drink just yet. The Endeavour or a later shuttle must return samples to Earth for analysis before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can give the all-clear.