Just hours into its journey to the Moon, the Artemis II crew ran into an unexpected problem — a malfunctioning toilet inside the Orion capsule. The spacecraft’s $30 million Universal Waste Management System, built to improve astronaut sanitation, triggered a fault alert when its urine collection fan became jammed.
Although the system could still handle solid waste, astronauts had to switch to backup bags for liquid waste as engineers worked on a solution. Mission Control in Houston guided Mission Specialist Christina Koch through a detailed repair process to access the system, clear the blockage, and restart it.
After troubleshooting from the ground, the team successfully brought the toilet back online before the crew’s rest period.
Controllers later cleared the system for normal use, advising the crew to allow it to reach full operating speed before using it. Koch later described the moment as a tense but ultimately minor issue, noting that the problem was likely due to a priming delay rather than a serious mechanical failure.