NASA astronauts on their way to the Moon have reason to celebrate, not only because their launch went so well, but also because they managed to repair a small chemical toilet that everyone will use in the cramped cabin they are traveling in during the ten-day journey until they return home.
The so-called "lunar toilet" broke down as soon as Artemis II reached Earth orbit Wednesday night. Mission control walked astronaut Kristina Koch through plumbing tricks, and she finally managed to "get it going."
The bad news is that it's so cold inside the Orion capsule - 18 degrees Celsius - that the four astronauts are rummaging through their bags for long-sleeved clothing. Mission Control is trying to help warm up the cabin.
Three Americans and a Canadian are on track to launch a spacecraft out of Earth orbit tonight and fly toward the Moon, where they will only fly by it, but it will be the farthest humans have traveled from Earth. It will be Mission Control's first translunar operation since Apollo's swan song in 1972.
Until then, astronauts will enjoy a view of Earth from tens of thousands of kilometers up. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out entire coastlines of continents, even the South Pole, where she once resided.
"It's just absolutely phenomenal," Koh, who spent a year at a research station in Antarctica before joining NASA, said over the radio.
The mission is scheduled to end with a landing in the Pacific on April 10th.
NASA expects the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to the landing of two astronauts on the Moon in 2028. And the toilet may require some design changes.
Located in the floor with a door and a privacy curtain, the capsule's only toilet is based on an experimental toilet that was launched to the International Space Station in 2020. That toilet on the station has barely been used and has been out of service for years.
Called the "Universal Waste Management System," the compact toilet uses air suction instead of water and gravity to remove waste, similar to earlier space toilets. It is also designed to better accommodate female astronauts.
Koh and her crew members had to use a system of bags and funnels to urinate until she could fix the toilet.
Any toilet - even an occasional one - is better than none if you ask any of the six surviving Apollo astronauts.
NASA's Apollo capsules were too small to accommodate a toilet, so the crews, which consisted entirely of men, relied on emergency kits during their journey to the Moon.
The so-called "Apollo bags" were repurposed during later NASA space shuttle flights, serving as a backup whenever the shuttle toilet broke down.
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