Off and No Longer Running: Space Station’s First Treadmill to be Jettisoned with Trash

UPDATE: This article was updated at 4: 23 p.m. EDT to reflect an error in information provided by NASA:

The space station's original treadmill has not yet run its course.

The "Treadmill Vibration Isolation System" (TVIS), which was used by both astronauts and cosmonauts to exercise aboard the International Space Station for more than 12 years was not jettisoned on Tuesday (June 11) onboard a spent Russian cargo freighter, as earlier reported.

A NASA spokesperson confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the information earlier provided to collectSPACE.com by the space agency was in error.

The device, which is no longer in use, will instead leave the station and be discarded with the next Russian unmanned resupply vehicle, Progress M-18M (50P), which as of Tuesday was scheduled to undock on July 26. After its departure, the cargo craft and its contents including the TVIS treadmill will be destroyed during its descent back into Earth's atmosphere.

The TVIS was replaced aboard the station by a Russian-built unit that was first put into use recently and by a more advanced U.S. treadmill named after television comedian Stephen Colbert.

The original article, unedited, follows below:

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A space apparatus that for more than a dozen years enabled both astronauts and cosmonauts to literally run around the Earth bid farewell to its home on orbit Tuesday (June 11). The International Space Station's original treadmill is now on its way to its fiery destruction aboard a spent Russian cargo freighter.

The now-discarded exercise device, called the "Treadmill Vibration Isolation System," or TVIS (pronounced "tee-viss"), was used by the orbiting outpost's first 34 resident crews from November 2000 until March of this year, when it was replaced by a new Russian-built unit. The 12-year-old running machine (and sometimes marathon track) was previously succeeded by a more advanced U.S. treadmill that was famously re-named after the television comedian Stephen Colbert.

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Off and No Longer Running: Space Station's First Treadmill to be Jettisoned with Trash