Astronauts leaving the International Space Station (ISS) on November 7 to return to Earth will have to wear diapers because the toilet of the SpaceX spacecraft is broken.
Toilet breakdown in space
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur described November 5 as “under the best of conditions” but manageable. The four Crew-2 astronauts will spend 20 hours in the spaceship of the SpaceX spacecraft, from the time the hatch closes until they land on Earth on the morning of 8.11.
“Spaceflight is full of small challenges. This is just another problem that we have and have to take care of during the mission. So we’re not too worried,” – NASA astronaut shared during the interview. Online press conference from the ISS space station.Astronauts on the ISS also have to deal with the leak of the toilet in the SpaceX capsule. The problem was first detected in the toilet bowl of another spacecraft for SpaceX’s Inspiration 4 civilian mission in September. During that mission, four civilian astronauts orbited Earth for three days.
SpaceX fixed the toilet in the spaceship waiting for take-off but deemed the toilet in the orbiting capsule unusable.
Engineers determined that the SpaceX spacecraft did not suffer from a urine leak from the incident that affected the structure and the astronauts’ safe return to Earth. According to NASA, astronauts will have to rely on absorbent “undershirts” when returning for the November 7 flight.
Returning to Earth with astronaut McArthur were also NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. SpaceX sent these astronauts to the space station on April 23 during the Crew-2 mission.
The capsule carrying the Crew-2 crew to the ISS has a maximum space of 210 days, and November 5 marks the 196th day of the spacecraft in orbit. Therefore, NASA is eager to bring the astronauts back as soon as possible.Memorable Mission on the ISS
After a series of meetings, the US space mission managers decided to bring astronaut McArthur and the rest of the team back to Earth before sending people to replace them.
The launch of a SpaceX spacecraft to bring astronauts to the ISS on behalf of this group has been delayed for more than a week due to bad weather and an undisclosed medical issue involving an astronaut. Crew-3 astronauts include Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron of NASA, along with Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency. SpaceX is currently planning to launch the spacecraft on the evening of November 10 at the earliest.Astronaut Thomas Pesquet says that the past six months on the International Space Station have been very stressful. The astronauts performed a series of spacewalks to upgrade the space station’s power grid, as well as experiencing problems caused by the Russian spacecraft’s propulsion engines that caused the ISS to rotate and pick up the crew. Russian filmmakers to film for the first time in space.
Thus, on the ISS space station, there will only be 1 American astronaut and 2 Russian astronauts left when the 4 astronauts return to the SpaceX train this weekend.
According to Space.com, with Crew-2 astronauts returning to Earth and Crew-3 astronauts not making it to the ISS yet, handing over the work will be done online by NASA. According to astronaut Kimbrough, the lack of direct handover is not really a big deal but ideally the Crew-2 astronauts would show the successor crew some tips for life in the ISS space station. However, the remaining NASA astronauts on the ISS will replace Crew-2 to support the new astronauts.
