Astronauts aboard the space station celebrated a space first on Wednesday by drinking water that had been recycled from their urine, sweat and water that condenses from exhaled air. They said 'cheers', clicked drinking bags and toasted NASA workers on the ground who were sipping their own version of recycled drinking water.

'The taste is great,' American astronaut Michael Barratt said.

Then as Russian Gennady Padalka tried to catch little bubbles of the clear water floating in front of him, Barratt called the taste 'worth chasing'. He said the water came with labels that said: 'drink this when real water is over 200 miles away'.

The urine recycling system is needed for astronaut outposts on the moon and Mars. It also will save NASA money because it won't have to ship up as much water to the station by space shuttle or cargo rockets.

It's also crucial as the space station is about to expand from three people living on board to six.

The recycling system had been brought up to the space station last November by space shuttle Endeavour, but it couldn't be used until samples were tested back on Earth and a stuck valve was fixed on Monday.

So when it came time to actually drink up, NASA made a big deal of it. The three-man crew stood holding their drinks and congratulated engineers in two NASA centres that worked on the system.

'This is something that had been the stuff of science fiction,' Barratt said before taking a sip.

NASA deputy space shuttle manager LeRoy Cain called it 'a huge milestone.' On the Russian side of the space station, moisture in the air - not urine - is turned into drinking water. -- AP