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Exhaustive testing and analysis of Vapor Compression Distillation technology has proven its overall readiness as a wastewater processor for the recovery of water in orbiting and interplanetary spacecraft. In conjunction with Boeing Aerospace and Electronics and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Life Systems' technical team has been focusing on verifying and improving performance characteristics, micro-gravity compatibility, reliability and maintainability aspects of the Vapor Compression Distillation design. Amassing thousands of hours of testing and recent breakthroughs in the area of peristaltic pump design, product water conductivity sensing and gas/liquid separation concepts have substantially increased the engineering and scientific database that has been accumulating over the past 29 years.

Vapor Compression Distillation technology has proved its readiness as a spacecraft wastewater processor as evidenced by selection of this technology for the Urine Processor Assembly aboard Space Station Freedom. In conjunction with Boeing Aerospace Company and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Life Systems' technical team has made significant advances in both flight hardware design and software operational aspects. The flight hardware design has focused on Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) design, ORU rack packaging and ORU weight reduction. On orbit operational aspects of software include operating modes, process control loops, fault detection and fault isolation. These improvements are further indication that Vapor Compression Distillation will be the key to providing wastewater regeneration essential for long-term human survival in space.