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<\/p>\nNow more than two-thirds to the moon, the Artemis II astronauts are preparing for their historic lunar fly-around to push deeper into space than even the Apollo astronauts. On the downside, their toilet is on the blink again.<\/p>\n
The three Americans \u2014 Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover \u2014 and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen, are set to reach their destination today, photographing the mysterious lunar far side as they zoom around. It is the first moon-bound crew in more than 53 years, picking up where NASA\u2019s Apollo program left off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Earth is quite small, and the moon is definitely getting bigger,\u201d pilot Glover reported.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: NASA via AFP<\/p>\n
Until the Orion capsule\u2019s bathroom is fixed, Mission Control has instructed the astronauts to break out more of the backup urine collection bags.<\/p>\n
The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned following Wednesday\u2019s liftoff and has been hit-and-miss ever since. A version of the Artemis II toilet was tested on the International Space Station several years ago.<\/p>\n
Engineers suspect ice might be blocking the line that is preventing urine from completely flushing overboard. The toilet is still open for No. 2 business.<\/p>\n
Debbie Korth, NASA\u2019s Orion program deputy manager, said the astronauts have also reported a smell coming from the bathroom, which is buried in the floor of the capsule with a door and curtain for privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpace toilets and bathrooms are something everybody can really understand … it\u2019s always a challenge,\u201d she said, noting that the space shuttle toilet was also often on the fritz.<\/p>\n
Mission management team chairman John Honeycutt said that it is human nature to be interested in the space commode, and even though it is \u201cin a good state right now,\u201d he would like it to be working at 100 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re OK,\u201d he said of the astronauts. \u201cThey trained to manage through the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASA yesterday published an image taken by the Artemis crew, showing a distant moon with the Orientale basin visible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,\u201d NASA said.<\/p>\n
The massive crater, which resembles a bullseye, had been photographed before by orbiting cameras.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Canadian children live from space, astronaut Koch said the crew was most excited to see the basin \u2014 sometimes known as the moon\u2019s \u201cGrand Canyon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it,\u201d Koch said during a question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the astronauts started their day with a meal that included scrambled eggs and coffee, and were woken up to the tune of Chappell Roan\u2019s pop smash Pink Pony Club, NASA said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorale is high on board,\u201d commander Wiseman told Mission Control as the space crew\u2019s work day began.<\/p>\n
The astronauts have already seen brand-new perspectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast night, we did have our first view of the moon far side, and it was just absolutely spectacular,\u201d mission specialist Koch said during a live interview from space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now more than two-thirds to the moon, the Artemis II astronauts are preparing for their historic lunar fly-around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141,5701,5700],"class_list":{"0":"post-377518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-the-taipei-times","12":"tag-5700"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}