It’s the question nobody wants to ask, but everybody wants answered… how do astronauts do their business in space?
Doing your business while weightless sounds like it would be impossibly messy, but for the nearly 300 people who have spent long stretches living aboard the International Space Station, it becomes a practical routine they have to master.
Before long, four astronauts set to circle the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission will face the same challenge.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are scheduled to spend roughly 10 days away from Earth, covering more than 1.1 million kilometers as they fly around the Moon and return.
The flight will be the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972, coming 54 years after humans last left low Earth orbit.
The team will lift off from Kennedy Space Center on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). After launch, the Orion spacecraft will separate from the rocket’s upper stage while in Earth orbit, then fire its own engine to send the crew onto a lunar loop and, ultimately, back home.
Orion vehicle manager Branelle Rodriguez has previously addressed the less glamorous realities of spacecraft life, discussing onboard bathroom logistics on NASA’s Curious Universe podcast in January.
During the conversation, co-host Jacob Pinter raised the question most people inevitably wonder about sooner or later: how do you use the toilet in space?
Rodriguez, who has worked across Orion’s development journey, laughed before answering: “Very carefully.”
She continued: “You know, spaceflight and going to the bathroom is probably one of my favorite conversations, I’ll be honest. And it’s a great one to have actually with kids, because you’d be surprised at how brilliant their answers are.”
According to Rodriguez, Orion’s toilet takes its cues from the systems currently used on the ISS.
Those space toilets rely on a vacuum-style setup that uses suction to direct waste where it needs to go—because without gravity, nothing “drops,” and anything not controlled could drift into places nobody wants to think about.
You can see a video of how toilets on the ISS work below.
“When you get in there, first and foremost, you’re going to find yourself to make sure you get in a good configuration. There’s handrails, there’s tethers, there’s things to secure you, right? Because you’re in microgravity, so you’re constantly moving around and floating,” Rodriguez explains of using the bathroom in space.
She also broke down what happens to liquid waste—details that are oddly fascinating once you picture the physics involved.
“The liquid waste will actually be vented out of the spacecraft, very similar to how Apollo also did it,” Rodriguez says.
The thought of urine being released into space while the spacecraft barrels along at around 40,000 kilometers per hour is pretty unpleasant to imagine.
For solid waste, Rodriguez said the approach is more straightforward: it’s contained onboard.
“We call it a fecal collection container, and we utilize filters like carbon filters and things to help with odors and whatnot.”
That waste stays with the vehicle for the length of the mission, and is dealt with after the crew returns to Earth.
It’s a perspective shift for anyone who’s ever grumbled about a cramped restroom at work—Artemis II will be operating with far fewer comforts.
As for when the mission will actually fly, Artemis II’s timeline has continued to move. It was first expected to launch in late January, but Florida’s cold conditions and strong winds delayed the wet dress rehearsal, sliding it from January 30 into early February.
Then, on February 3, the rehearsal attempt was called off after hydrogen fuel leaks were discovered, pushing the target launch window from early February to March.
More recently, teams identified another complication involving helium flow that has to be resolved before the rocket can safely lift off.
Because of that, NASA has delayed Artemis II again, with the mission now no earlier than April 2026.