Leaking toilet in SpaceX forces astronauts to wear diapers!
The British newspaper, The Guardian, reported that a toilet leak in a SpaceX capsule will force astronauts to use diapers on their return trip to Earth.
Astronauts who will leave the International Space Station on Sunday will have to use diapers on their way back to Earth, due to a broken toilet in their SpaceX capsule.
NASA astronaut Megan MacArthur described the situation as "suboptimal" but manageable, and she and three colleagues will spend 20 hours in the capsule, from the time the gates close until Monday morning.
"Space journey is full of many small challenges," MacArthur said at a press conference from orbit.
“This is just another one that we will encounter and take care of in our mission, so we are not too concerned about that.”
After a series of meetings on Friday, mission managers decided to return MacArthur and the rest of her crew to Earth before sending replacements. The launch of the SpaceX rocket was delayed more than a week due to bad weather and an undisclosed medical problem involving a crew member.
SpaceX now aims to take off on Wednesday night at the earliest.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who will return with MacArthur, told reporters the past six months have been intense.
The astronauts conducted a series of spacewalks to modernize the station's power grid, were unintentionally fired from lightning strikes by docked Russian vehicles, and hosted a special Russian camera crew.
They also had to deal with a leaky toilet, pulling the plates into their capsule to detect puddles of urine.
The problem was first noticed during a SpaceX private flight in September, when a tube broke and urine spilled under the floorboards.
SpaceX has repaired the toilet and installed it on the capsule pending takeoff, but it considers the toilet in orbit to be unusable.
The engineers decided that the capsule did not suffer structural damage from urine and that it was safe to return to Earth, and the astronauts would have to rely on what NASA describes as absorbent "underwear" and "diapers."
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