Artemis II toilet malfunctions again as crew heads for lunar fly-around

Artemis II crew pushes toward lunar fly-around while toilet problem resurfaces

The Artemis II crew was already more than halfway to the moon as it prepared for a historic lunar fly-around designed to carry the Orion spacecraft farther than Apollo missions did. The effort is scheduled to culminate with a Pacific splashdown on April 10, after the crew breaks around the lunar far side and heads home without entering lunar orbit.

At the same time, NASA said the Orion capsule’s bathroom toilet has continued to malfunction. Mission Control instructed the four astronauts—three Americans and one Canadian—to rely more heavily on backup urine collection bags while engineers work through what the agency says is an ongoing issue.

NASA described the problem as resurfacing after liftoff on Wednesday, with the “lunar loo” having malfunctioned following launch and then working inconsistently since. A version of the Artemis II toilet had been tested on the International Space Station several years earlier, but the Orion crew’s trip has required additional workarounds in flight.

NASA said engineers suspect ice may be blocking the system component that prevents urine from completely flushing overboard. Despite the plumbing concern, NASA said the toilet remains available for “No. 2 business.”

Debbie Korth, NASA’s Orion program deputy manager, said the crew also reported a smell coming from the bathroom. She said, in remarks shared with NASA leadership, that space toilets and bathrooms are something people “can really understand” and that such equipment has often been “on the fritz,” including in shuttle-era flights.

John Honeycutt, chair of the mission management team, said the astronauts are coping with the malfunction. Honeycutt said it is human nature to be interested in the space commode and that even though he described the system as being “in a good state right now,” he would like it to be working at “100%.”

The mission remains on track for its next milestones. Artemis II is poised to set a distance record for humans by traveling more than 252,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth before executing a U-turn behind the moon and returning home, with the record currently held by Apollo 13.

Jeremy Hansen, an astronaut from Canada, was also in the center of the public messaging around the flight. The Canadian Space Agency highlighted his role ahead of the lunar rendezvous, noting that Hansen is the first non-U.S. citizen to fly to the moon. In a televised linkup, Hansen said he had already seen “extraordinary” views from inside NASA’s Orion capsule.

The Artemis II astronauts—Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch—are described by NASA as the first lunar crew since Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA also said Koch and Glover are, respectively, the first female and the first Black astronauts to reach the moon, as the mission marks the first step in NASA’s plans for a sustained lunar presence, including an anticipated landing near the lunar south pole by two astronauts in 2028.