NASA Launches New $23 Million Toilet to International Space Station

First, PetaPixel reminds us that Estee Lauder's products will be launching into space this week: The cosmetics giant Estee Lauder is paying NASA $128,000 for a product photography shoot onboard the International Space Station. Bloomberg reports that the company will be paying the space agency to fly 10 bottles of its Advanced Night Repair skin serum to the orbiting space station on a cargo run that will launch from Virginia on Tuesday and dock on Saturday. Once the product is on board, astronauts will be tasked with shooting product photos of the serum floating in the cupola module, which has sweeping panoramic views of Earth and space.

NASA charges a "professional fee" of $17,500 per hour for the astronauts' time.
In a possibly-related story, the same flight will also be carrying a new $23 million space toilet to the station as part of a routine resupply mission "to test it out before it's used on future missions to the moon or Mars."

Yes, we know

[quonset]

You told us a week ago [slashdot.org].

Re: Yes, we know

[RightwingNutjob]

That's an expensive photo shoot. Best get all the marketing you can out of it. Like with duplicate slashdot posts. After all, I'm sure that the mix of nerds, SJWs, incels, and the few normal human males that still read this site are going to be slightly more likely to purchase this particular line of women's cosmetics for their real and imaginary wives and girlfriends once they are reminded that it's flown on the space station. Squeeze out every dollar you can. It's a rough economy out there.

New space toilet?

[DontBeAMoran]

In a possibly-related story, the same flight will also be carrying a new $23 million space toilet to the station as part of a routine resupply mission "to test it out before it's used on future missions to the moon or Mars."

I sincerely hope this toilet sucks.

Re:New space toilet?

[geekmux]

In a possibly-related story, the same flight will also be carrying a new $23 million space toilet to the station as part of a routine resupply mission "to test it out before it's used on future missions to the moon or Mars."

I sincerely hope this toilet sucks.

For $23 million dollars, it better suck like Mega Maid.

Re:

[LeeLynx]

Just hope and pray it it doesn't go from suck to blow.

Re:

[mspohr]

Back in the old days there was a joke that if Microsoft made a vacuum cleaner it would be the only vacuum that didn't suck.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

$23 million for a shitter? Did NASA do this on a DoD contract?

$17,500 per hour compared to Bezos

[oumuamua]

Someone calculated Bezos makes millions per hour. In fact an hour of astronaut time can't beat him by the minute, $149,353/minute but can beat him per second: $2489/sec https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]

Re: $17,500 per hour compared to Bezos

[NagrothAgain]

Someone calculated sensational bullshit. They based that on his net worth change over a year, not his actual earnings, so if you pick a day that Amazon stock drops in price he's losing more money an hour than most people make in a month.

Re:

[Papaspud]

more money than people make in a lifetime...ftfy.

I'm stoked

[marcle]

Oh boy I gotta buy that stuff shut up and take my money. I wanna complexion just like an ass-tronaut.

Ah the cupola module.

[h33t l4x0r]

Such a fitting tribute to Francis Ford Cupola, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Hee Haw!

[AndyKron]

Possibly related story. LOL.

$1 per mile

[sixthousand]

Maybe I should revise my own consulting fee as a function of distance rather than time.

Editor Dave should be flushed!!

[minibnz]

Really you give the headline to an aside that the summary doesn’t even mention?? You should be flushed down the space toilet?? The dumb arse that posts ASCII nazi symbols has more to do with the space toilet that the posted summary you should be a shamed and hand back every cent you might have got from posting that article!!!!

chump change?

[v1]

NASA charges a "professional fee" of $17,500 per hour for the astronauts' time.

Granted, that's a lot of time to pay by the hour, but the location is very exclusive, and the operating cost is astronomical. I'm surprised they're not more like $50k/hour?

And someone said they thought this was going to be an expensive photoshoot for a commercial.... not even? Estee will be paying their photoshop monkeys more than NASA. Even if the shoot takes a couple hours, $30k for a commercial photo shoot is peanuts.

Also,

Plumbers in Spaaaacccce?

[Latent Heat]

Who knew that a 23 million-dollar toilet would rate a plumber charging $17,500/hour?

Is there also a "trip" charge on top of that? Must cost a whole bunch.

Re:

[v1]

23 million is probably the total cost. The toilet itself is maybe only $700 or so, the rest is probably the deliver and setup costs!

ok maybe that doesn't cover it all. I bet they also opted to get for the extended warranty, which includes on-site service calls.

Re: Plumbers in Spaaaacccce?

[mph8er]

The cost is that because there's so few of them. Whether you make a million of something or 5 of them, you're still paying the engineering cost to design it.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I love NASA being commercialized if the sponsors have nothing to do with choosing research projects, and it never becomes a significant drain on the time of people whose efforts could be better spent advancing technology. This will take a short period of time and make a bunch of cash which can be spent on science. I only wish they'd charge more for frivolous pursuits like this, specifically including advertising, so that they could do even more science.

NASA growing would be a good thing.

Re:

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

NASA charges a "professional fee" of $17,500 per hour for the astronauts' time.

Granted, that's a lot of time to pay by the hour, but the location is very exclusive, and the operating cost is astronomical. I'm surprised they're not more like $50k/hour?

According to the Bloomberg article, Estee Lauder is paying $128,000 to include ten bottles of their product in a supply run. I think the $17,500/hour charge for the astronauts' time is additional.

It's not a bad deal for NASA, when you consider that the astronauts get an annual salary of about $100K to $150K.

Hello there

[bmimatt]

Hello Halliburton, the maker of the most posh and expensivest toilet bowls and plushest and most ergonomic seats.
Is gold involved>

Advanced Night Repair skin serum?

[aglider]

I wonder how that compares with science and technology, while I understand that money is money even for NASA!

Editors trying to hide dupes now?

[thegarbz]

I mean if the title of the story actually matched the Estee Lauder summary then I'd just call out EditorDavid for another silly dupe. But seriously WTF is this, a dupe with a modified title and a single sentence in the summary to try and hide the fact its a dupe?

Are the poorly coded AI scripts that Slashdot pretends to call "editors" infected with some Russian propaganda malware?

Expensive Crap Shoot

[flyingfsck]

It sure sounds like a very expensive Crap Shoot that makes the $500 toilet seats for the C130 aircraft look like toilet paper.

I know it sounds like a lot

[h33t l4x0r]

But after 1 million space dumps? That's only $23 per space dump.

Septic system at a "weekend" place

[Latent Heat]

No joke. I figured that over time, the septic system was costing us 10 bucks a squat.

So let me guess

[willoughby]

I suppose they just grabbed one from the supply closet at the Pentagon...

Did Howard design it ?

[Laxator2]

Or is Bernadette taking up all his time now ?

That's a hell of an hourly wage.

[bjwest]

NASA charges a "professional fee" of $17,500 per hour for the astronauts' time.

I wonder how much of that the astronaut receives. My guess would be $0.00.

Re:

[magarity]

NASA charges a "professional fee" of $17,500 per hour for the astronauts' time.

I wonder how much of that the astronaut receives. My guess would be $0.00.

Taking pictures of some cosmetics bottles for an hour or so is effectively time off from the constant more serious duties. Thus it is priceless to the astronauts just for itself. Remember the Skylab mutiny?

NASA Approves product work?

[Anon42Answer]

So with NASA doing promo for the product, that must mean that NASA and scientists approve and acknowledge that 'Advanced Night Repair skin serum' actually repairs the skin at night but does not working during the day. I'd like to see NASA scientific data to show this.
What, NASA is promoting a product they have not tested or cannot prove it work?
If NASA claims they are not endorsing that the product works, then any product should be able to pay the same hourly rate for a similar promo.
Next up, sex toys in s