Toilet malfunction on lunar mission
The Astronauts on the Artemis II mission are days into their historic lunar flyby mission. However, for the second time during the mission, the toilet had issues. NASA suspected an ice blockage that’s preventing the toilet from fully functioning. Luckily, the Astronauts have a backup plan. Debbie Korth, program deputy manager, said that the toilet is still operable and that this was a test flight. This mission will provide data needed to improve future missions.
From Fox News:
“During the night, we tried to vent the wastewater tank that’s attached to the toilet. We had problems with that, due to suspected blockage we think probably due to ice. So we directed the crew overnight to use their collapsible contingency urine devices,” Judd Frieling, the Artemis II flight director, explained during a news conference Saturday.
The astronauts encountered a similar problem with the toilet on the first day of their mission. The ship’s lunar loo malfunctioned following liftoff and has remained a lingering issue.
Debbie Korth, NASA’s Orion program deputy manager, said the toilet is still operable.
“You know, this is a test flight. We’re figuring out how these systems work together, but it is operable, and we have redundancy to get us through the mission,” she said.
The toilet, NASA confirmed, is still available for astronauts to use for solid waste.
“Space toilets and bathrooms are something everybody can really understand .. it’s always a challenge,” Korth said.
John Honeycutt, chair of the mission management team, said the public’s interest in the Orion toilet was “kind of human nature.”
Additional Reading:
Sinkewicz, M. (2026, April 5). Artemis II astronauts face toilet trouble as they head toward the moon. Fox News. Link.
As I liked to remind Boeing/Navy Program Managers, in Test failure is always an option.
They hated that.
*grin*
“suspected blockage we think probably due to ice”
Nah, probably due to overuse of cheap TP or non flushables
if you catch my drift…
the only thing stopping the turds from going down the bowl aboard the LPH 3 was a crew member using too much shit paper to wipe his ass. Didn’t have navy Chicks on board in those days so thats why Chicks weren’t mentioned.. Plunger took care of the backup and all the shit went overboard plus urinal pee…. While pierside, you could look down to the water and see shit coming out of the pipes into the drink when someone was taking a dump and watch shit eating Garr fish enjoing the meals..What a bunch of shit eaters..
The circle of life
Tampon Tim apologizes for allowing the wrong things in the toilet area.
How far is the toilet from the oscillating air circulation device?
I think that they should check out the series 6 newton ring that is attached to the razzle dazzler and a spool of pipe thread would come in handy if the problem is at the male end of the fitting or a file to dress the threads…Later Alligator
It was Gemini 7 that used leaky pee bags. They were up there for two weeks in a capsule that had about the same amount of space as the front seat of a compact car. Jim Lovell said it was like “spending two weeks in the men’s room”.
mostly Gone are the days when men’s rooms had plaster ceilings and 3 0r 4 guys could hit those notes in harmony and let out some Boss ballads…
“…no Law of Diminishing returns when it comes to space poop”
Shitter’s full!
No shit, You wouldn’t be shitting me would you, so I’ll just shit here and see if anyone comes up with any further shit on the above Shitters full…Later Alligator..
That guy needs to go to the dump or take a dump but
either way he appears to be enjoying a cold beverage.
Meister Brau, IIRC!
On the bright side, neither the US Navy or NASA lost any ships/spacecraft to a malfunctioning toilet. That distinction belongs to the Nazi German Navy.
U-1206’s Commander was Captain Schlitt *snickers*
I guess his Command was Full of Schlitt. HAHA! Ok, now I’m done!
RIM SHOT
😂
As a scuba diver, I’m just going to observe that scuba divers (other scuba divers) piss in their wet suits all the time. As a matter of fact, I hear that it warms other divers up.
Let the space suit wearers take note and be thankful this isn’t a number two problem.