{"id":183469,"date":"2026-04-02T15:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183469\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:26:22","slug":"artemis-ii-suffers-embarrassing-toilet-issue-just-hours-after-moon-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183469\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II suffers embarrassing toilet issue just hours after moon launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just hours after the Artemis II mission<\/a> successfully launched its historic deep space lunar flyby, the four-person crew experienced a problem with the Orion spacecraft\u2019s high-tech toilet.<\/p>\n

Artemis II mission<\/a> specialist Christina Koch \u2014 the only woman onboard the 10-day mission \u2014 first reported the issue to Mission Control not long after Wednesday night\u2019s breathtaking liftoff from Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toilet fan is reported to be jammed,\u201d NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during live mission commentary, according to Space.com<\/a>. \u201cNow the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christina Koch participates in the activation of the Orion spacecraft\u2019s toilet system. NASA \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Norm Knight, NASA\u2019s director of flight operations, explained that the malfunction was due to a controller issue on the toilet. Officials confirmed the space potty could still be used for number two, just not for number one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fecal collection of the toilet, that specific capability, can still be used with the waste management system aboard Orion,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n

The astronauts in the meantime employed their contingency \u201cwaste management capabilities specifically for urine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours after Koch reported the issue to Mission, flight controllers walked her through the steps get the toilet up and running again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston, Integrity, good checkout,\u201d Koch said after trying the fix as she hurtled through space.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy to report that toilet is go for use,\u201d Mission Control\u2019s Capcom Amy Dill radioed back to Koch. \u201cWe do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid, and then letting it run a little bit after donation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Joe Marino\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The new toilet aboard the 330 cubic-foot \u201cIntegrity\u201d spacecraft was to offer the cramped astronauts the tiniest bit of privacy on their journey around the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty fortunate as a crew to have a toilet with a door on this tiny spacecraft,\u201d Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen said in a recent video tour of the ship before the launch.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It\u2019s) the one place we can go during the mission where we can actually feel like we\u2019re alone for a moment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Astronauts at zero-gravity will float into the phone\u2011booth\u2011sized stall, use a hose to dispose of urine and perch on an industrial\u2011looking toilet seat to poop.<\/p>\n

The Artemis II crew: Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen. NASA \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feces gets sucked down into the bottom into a bag, and you close that off and squish it down into the canister,\u201d Hansen explained. Those canisters will ride back to Earth for disposal after the mission is over.<\/p>\n

The urine, meanwhile, is flushed out into the void.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just hours after the Artemis II mission successfully launched its historic deep space lunar flyby, the four-person crew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[73672,6785,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-183469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-artemis-ii","9":"tag-nasa","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}