Artemis II toilet returns to ‘normal operations’ after brief issue

The Artemis II mission crew flushed out an issue with their onboard toilet system shortly after launching into space on April 1, NASA said.

The astronauts worked with NASA’s mission control team in Houston to restore the Orion spacecraft’s toilet to “normal operations” after an issue arose post-launch, the agency said.

NASA said in a blog post that the crew “reported a blinking fault light” related to the toilet system prior to conducting an engine maneuver known as the apogee raise burn on April 1.

“Mission control teams successfully assessed the data and worked with the crew to troubleshoot and resolve the issue,” the agency said.

During a post-launch news conference, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya described the problem as “a controller issue with the toilet.”

The four-person Artemis II crew launched on a historic space mission aimed at returning astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since the Apollo missions came to an end more than five decades ago.

Toilet checks, conflict resolution: Meet Artemis II crew and their jobs

How does Artemis II’s toilet work?

The toilet on board the Orion spacecraft is known as the Universal Waste Management System.

The restroom includes a privacy stall and an ergonomic toilet seat. The toilet itself consists of a compact titanium vacuum-based toilet that uses suction to pull waste into separate containers for urine and feces.

In a video from the Canadian Space Agency, Artemis II Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen said the system uses a hose that collects urine, which is then vented out into space several times a day.

As for the feces, they get sucked down into a bag at the bottom of the toilet. Once the bag is closed off, it gets pushed into a canister, which will return to Earth with the crew, Hansen said.

“We’re pretty fortunate as a crew to have a toilet with a door on this tiny spacecraft – the one place that we can go during the mission where we can actually feel like we’re alone for a moment,” Hansen said in the video.

The Artemis II crew is the first to have a toilet system on board a spacecraft set to orbit the moon; modern space toilets were not available during the Apollo missions, so those crews used a plastic bag to collect their fecal waste.

Contributing: Jennifer Borresen, Ramon Padilla, and Shawn J. Sullivan, USA TODAY

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Artemis II toilet problem fixed. What happened?