Artemis II: What happened to Orion's toilet? Spacecraft bathroom suffers major malfunction

Needing to go to the loo to be met with a toilet door sign saying 'out of order' or seeing the loo blocked is nothing new but can be one of the most frustrating things, especially as you then have to scramble to find another one at the exact moment you thought it would all be over.

Well, imagine that happening up in space...

Soon after the new Orion spacecraft, ironically called Integrity, successfully launched on Wednesday (1 April) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the astronauts on NASA's Artemis II mission pretty much immediately encountered a blockage.

One of those on board noticed an issue and reported a blinking light fault on the spacecraft's toilet and mission control gave instructions of how to fix it.

After following instructions, the toilet is thankfully back in working order so those on board are able to do their business once again.

In an update on this, NASA said: "The Artemis II crew, working closely with mission control in Houston, were able to restore the Orion spacecraft's toilet to normal operations following the proximity operations demonstration.

"Ahead of the apogee raise burn, the Artemis II crew reported a blinking fault light and mission control teams successfully assessed the data and worked with the crew to troubleshoot and resolve the issue."

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It's reported there was a controller issue on the loo that prevented the astronauts from urinating but they could still poop. That's because the loo manages each of these separately.

But now the astronauts are free to pee again whenever they want.

At the time of writing, the crew is getting some rest ahead of the next phase of the mission.

The NASA update said: "The crew now will take a four-hour nap and be awakened at 7am ET (12noon BST / 4am PT) on Thursday (2 April) to prepare for the perigee raise burn.

"This burn will lift the lowest point of Orion's orbit around Earth. Together with the apogee raise burn completed earlier, these burns shape the spacecraft's initial orbit and prepare it for later translunar operations.

"The crew members then will resume their sleep period around 9.40am ET (2.40pm BST / 6.40am PT)."

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Artemis II astronauts 'deserved better' as camera work compared to 1960s quality
• Artemis II in numbers: The key figures behind NASA moon mission from distance, to living space

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