Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- 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 $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.

`Long-Term Sustainability'

The unit, a terrestrial version of which purifies water for villages in northern Iraq, will be important when the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. Most of the outpost's drinking water has arrived aboard the shuttle or Russian cargo vehicles.

``This sets us up for long-term sustainability of the station,'' Mike Sarafin, the Houston-based lead shuttle flight director, said in an interview posted on NASA's Web site.

The U.S. hopes to build the shuttle's successor, the lunar- capable Orion vehicle, by 2014.

The $100 billion space station has traditionally accommodated a long-term crew of only three. The extra sleeping racks, refrigerator and toilet will allow for six people by early next year. The new fridge will chill beverages, while the current one is for science experiments.

``We're taking a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house and turning it into a five-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a gym,'' mission commander Chris Ferguson said in the same interview. The gym, which will join an exercise bike on the station, uses pistons and cylinders to create resistance.

Presses, Squats, Curls

The crew will be able to do bench presses, leg squats, bicep curls and other exercises. Loss of muscle and bone density is a problem for astronauts who spend long periods in zero gravity.

The seven-person Endeavour crew will perform several spacewalks during the 15-day mission. Gears that rotate the station's solar wings need lubrication, cleaning and replacement.

Grinding in the gears has produced metal shavings that clog movement and threaten the station's power supply, which depends on wings that can track the sun.

The repairs will require multiple trips outside the station to remove insulating covers and expose the machinery.

On this trip, Endeavour astronaut Sandra Magnus will swap places with Greg Chamitoff, who's been on the station since June. U.S. commander Mike Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov will remain on the outpost until March.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 14, 2008 00:03 EST