Here’s something NASA didn’t mention in the press releases: the Artemis II astronauts are heading to the moon on Monday, but they’re doing it with a broken toilet.
According to AP reporting, the Orion capsule’s bathroom malfunctioned shortly after Wednesday’s liftoff and has been unreliable ever since. Mission Control’s solution? Break out the backup urine collection bags. It’s not exactly the triumph of human engineering we imagined when we thought about returning to the moon for the first time in over 50 years.
The three American astronauts and one Canadian crew member are nearly halfway there now, ready to orbit the lunar far side and snap photos of terrain no human has ever photographed from this close. They’ll travel more than 252,000 miles from Earth, shattering the previous distance record held by Apollo 13. It’s genuinely extraordinary. And yet, they’re doing it while managing a bathroom situation that would make anyone uncomfortable.
When Space Tech Fails, You Improvise
NASA engineers suspect ice is blocking the line that prevents urine from fully flushing overboard. The toilet still works for solid waste, but the smell wafting from the cramped bathroom area is apparently noticeable enough that astronauts mentioned it to Mission Control. Debbie Korth, NASA’s Orion program deputy manager, acknowledged the obvious: “Space toilets and bathrooms are something everybody can really understand. It’s always a challenge.”
This isn’t new territory for NASA. The space shuttle toilet malfunctioned regularly. The Artemis II toilet was actually tested on the International Space Station years ago, so this particular design has a history. What’s changed is that astronauts are now racing deeper into space than they’ve been since 1972, and the stakes feel higher when something goes wrong 252,000 miles away.
John Honeycutt, chair of the mission management team, put it plainly: the astronauts are trained to manage through situations like this. They’re “OK,” he said, though he’d prefer the toilet working at full capacity. That’s a reasonable ask when you’re sending humans to the edge of the moon.
A Crew Making History, Bathroom Issues and All
The real story here isn’t the toilet, though. It’s who’s sitting in those seats. Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen are the world’s first lunar astronauts since Apollo 17 in 1972. Koch is the first female astronaut to the moon. Glover is the first Black astronaut to reach lunar orbit. Hansen is the first non-U.S. citizen to fly to the moon, and he’s Canadian.
When Glover radioed back that “the Earth is quite small, and the moon is definitely getting bigger,” he was describing something profound. These four are at the threshold of something we haven’t done in generations. The Canadian Space Agency made a point of this, with agency president Lisa Campbell saying Hansen’s journey “remind us that Canada’s future is written by those who dare to reach for more.”
Hansen himself reported already witnessing “extraordinary” views from the Orion capsule. That’s the real headline here. The toilet is just the footnote.
What Comes Next
This nearly 10-day mission, ending with a Pacific splashdown on April 10, is NASA’s first step toward something bigger. The space agency is targeting a lunar landing near the south pole in 2028, and they’re laying groundwork for a sustainable moon base. Artemis II is the test run, the proof of concept that humans can get there and back safely.
A malfunctioning toilet isn’t ideal for any of this, but it also isn’t a mission-ender. NASA’s trained these crews hard. They’ve got backup systems. And honestly, if the biggest problem they encounter on a mission to push human exploration deeper into space than we’ve gone in half a century is a temperamental bathroom, we might be looking at a pretty successful mission after all.
The real question isn’t whether astronauts can handle a broken toilet 252,000 miles from home. It’s what they’ll discover when they get there, and whether we’re finally ready to stay.
