There was a bit of toilet trouble
On Wednesday evening, NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully took off with the crew now bound for the Moon.
The 10-day mission will send four astronauts around the Moon in the Orion spacecraft to test life-support systems, navigation, and deep-space maneuverability before future lunar landings.
The four astronauts on humanity’s furthest ever journey into space are NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.
If all goes to plan, the mission aims to secure the best view of the moon’s dark side that’s ever been recorded.
However, not everything has gone to plan shortly after launch, as it looks like the astronauts have faced a technical issue.
As the crew went through life support system checks on board the spacecraft, they noticed something on one of the more crucial aspects of the shuttle, as the BBC reported.
While at first, astronauts told mission control that “toilet is powered, waste tank merged”, just minutes later they said that the toilet’s amber warning light was on, meaning something was wrong with the crew’s toilet.
Mission control then told the crew they would need some more time to figure out a solution.
“The fecal collection of the toilet, that specific capability, can still be used with the waste management system aboard Orion”, NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said, as per Space.com.
However, the good news for the crew is that Artemis 2 mission specialist Christina Koch managed to fix the issue, with the help of Mission Control.
“Happy to report that toilet is go for use. We do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid, and then letting it run a little bit after donation”, Mission Control’s Amy Dill told Koch over the radio after the fix.
Donating fluid, it seems, it’s just a fancy way to refer to peeing.
The crew will now take a four-hour nap, the space agency said, before being awakened at 7.00am EDT (11.00am BST) today, to prepare for the perigee raise burn.
The crew will be around 230,000 miles from Earth, at its furthest.
In a press conference after take-off, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman that “NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon”, noting that the crew is ‘safe, secure and in great spirits”.
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