We’ve all been there. A friend’s house party. Dinner with the in-laws. A busy gas station. You go to use the toilet, and it just… doesn’t… flush. This level of dread can only be described as a nightmare scenario—one that would instantly have me breaking out in a cold sweat and racing to my phone to panic-search Google for “what to do if your toilet won’t flush” quicker than you could say, “We have lift off!”
Now imagine the same situation happening when you’re hundreds of thousands of miles away from not only the nearest plumber, but the nearest human being. That’s exactly what happened to the astronauts on the Artemis II during their historic lunar flyby this past weekend.
Here at Family Handyman, we’ve seen our fair share of plumbing mishaps, but this is truly out of this world.
What Happened to the Toilet on Artemis II?
On Day 3 onboard the Artemis II’s Orion space capsule, mission specialist Christina Koch reported “a kind of burning heater smell” emitting from the ship’s toilet. As a precaution, ground control asked the crew to limit their toilet use while the cause was investigated. Yes, that meant the crew had to go back to using an old-school method of relieving themselves while they waited for a fix, which involved a diaper/waste bag contraption I would rather not describe in detail.
Artemis II flight director Judd Frieling told reporters on Saturday that there was an issue with dumping waste from the toilet. He stated, “It appears to me that we probably have some frozen urine in the vent line.”
Similar to plumbing in our own homes, frozen pipes can be no joke and cause a myriad of plumbing issues. With the temperature of outer space hovering around -455 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s easy to see how this could happen.
When you find out that you blocked the toilets 200000km away from the nearest plumber pic.twitter.com/8vQDFsVMXJ
— G_Sithole (@GJIVANI) April 4, 2026
How Did They Fix It?
By Day 4 of the flight, mission control devised a somewhat brilliant solution. They proposed rotating the capsule so that the frozen urine faced the sun—much like when I’m too lazy to scrape frost off my car in the morning, so I park it in a sunny spot and wait for it to melt.
This fix appeared to work, partially unclogging the pipe and allowing the toilet to expel some of the stuck urine from the system into space. Ground control and the crew onboard worked together to fully clear the system.
Around midnight, Houston called with a much-anticipated update. “Breaking news—you are go for all types of uses of the toilet,” announced Artemis II’s chief training officer Jacki Mahaffey. Koch replied in excitement, “And the crew rejoices!”
“I’m proud to call myself the space plumber,” Koch joked in a live interview with Fox. Koch added that it may have been an issue with the toilet simply sitting idle for too long and needing some time to warm up.
What Can We Learn
I, for one, am totally inspired by NASA’s response to this issue and the crew’s ability to stay calm and cool under pressure. While I hope to never experience a toilet failure in outer space, it’s a good reminder for what to check if you have toilet issues of your own here on Earth:
- Check for any clogs—something a simple plunger may help fix
- Adjust the float arm in the tank to ensure it doesn’t prematurely cut off the fill valve
- Double-check that the chain hasn’t disconnected and is properly adjusted
- See if the flapper is making a solid connection and isn’t leaking or forming any air bubbles.
And I think we can all agree that keeping calm under pressure when something around the house breaks is key. As Koch put it, “It’s probably the most important piece of equipment onboard, so we were all breathing a sigh of relief when it turned out to be just fine.”
Because at the end of the day, whether you’re in your own bathroom or orbiting the moon—sh*t happens.
RELATED:
- If You See a Blue Stop Sign, Here’s What It Means
- If You Spot This Yellow Device on Your Windshield, You’ve Been Barnacled
- What Do Shoes on Power Lines Mean?
The post The Only Toilet Broke on the Artemis II Spaceship— Here’s How They Fixed It appeared first on Family Handyman.
Article source here: The Only Toilet Broke on the Artemis II Spaceship— Here’s How They Fixed It
No comments:
Post a Comment