Artemis II Flight
Potty Problems Be Gone!
‘Space Plumber’ Details Toilet Issue
Published
NASA
Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch has a new name to add to her resume — “space plumber” — now that she successfully fixed the toilet issue on the NASA rocket en route to the moon.
Koch gave viewers the rundown after the Orion spacecraft’s porcelain throne — called the Universal Waste Management System — stopped working just hours after launch on Thursday. Luckily, Koch noted it was a minor issue that had to do with the toilet sitting for too long. It just needed to warm up before the crew could warm its seat!
NASA
We told you all about the bathroom turbulence — the potty troubles forced the astronauts to hold number 1 or use a backup system until the issue was fixed, which took several hours to do.
The Orion’s toilet is the first real toilet to be used for a flyby of the moon. It works by venting urine into space, while storing solid waste in a canister that will be emptied once back on Earth April 10.
Hopefully, that was our one and only plumbing plot twist!
