The Artemis II flight director has provided fresh details on a surprise technical issue the crew spotted only minutes after last week’s launch.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen blasted off from Florida last Wednesday (April 1), beginning their journey toward the Moon.
The mission hit a major milestone on Tuesday (April 7) with a landmark lunar flyby, coming shortly after the astronauts shared a striking photograph of Earth that sparked plenty of reaction online.
Back on Earth, attention has stayed fixed on the crew’s progress — including a phone call the astronauts received from Donald Trump during the flight.
Not long after liftoff, however, the team detected an unexpected problem in one of the most essential onboard systems: the spacecraft toilet.
In the first report to mission control, the crew said: “Toilet is powered, waste tank emerged.”
Soon after, an amber warning light appeared in the hygiene compartment. The astronauts were able to troubleshoot at the time and restore basic function, but later updates show the situation hasn’t been fully resolved.
According to mission updates, the crew encountered a ‘blinking fault light and mission control teams successfully assessed the data and worked with the crew to troubleshoot and resolve the issue’.
Koch was credited with helping get things back online, yet NASA has since indicated the fix didn’t address every part of the system.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Artemis 2 Flight Director Rick Henfling confirmed the toilet can still be used, but emphasized that waste handling remains a sticking point.
“The toilet remains operational,” Henfling explained. “The challenge that we’re working through is evacuating the tank. The vent is a lot less than we were expecting, and so we’re having to fall back to some other alternate means, other than the toilet.”
NASA had previously explained that the capsule’s toilet system was dealing with a fan issue that interfered with routine urine disposal.
“The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan stated during live mission commentary. “Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.”
Alongside the mechanical concerns, the crew has also flagged an unpleasant odor tied to the hygiene system. Hansen described the situation in an update on Friday (April 3).
He said: “For me, it was some sort of burning odor, and then it was definitely in the hygiene bay.
“And when I opened up the hygiene bay, the rest of the crew could smell it pretty much immediately.”