Image #211230

More items on display at the Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. At left is the food preparation equipment that was housed on the mid-deck of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Food and beverages could be heated up in a perfunctory way more for convenience than any gourmet stylings. The item at right that would also have been located on the mid-deck is best described by the interpretive panel describing the unit: “The orbiter’s toilet had lap bars so the astronauts didn’t float away and suction fans to simulate gravity and prevent waste from escaping the toilet.” The description brings to mind the wonderful scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when Dr. Heywood Floyd puzzles over the zero-gravity toilet instructions on the Moon-bound shuttle.