How Artemis II astronauts use the bathroom – and why it’s historic

(NEXSTAR) – NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, marking a major milestone in humans returning to the moon.

Artemis II is historic in many ways, from the diversity of its crew to the distance they will travel in the next 10 or so days. A very specific and notable novelty on this space flight that the crew may be especially thankful for is something you may take for granted: a working toilet, with a door.

While space toilets are nothing new – including Orion’s, there are now 10 galactic commodes – the newest among them make Artemis II the first mission orbiting the moon to have such an accommodation.

That’s because Artemis II is the first launch to the moon since the Apollo program in the 1970s, and Apollo didn’t have toilets.

Astronauts during Apollo missions used urine collection and transfer devices and plastic fecal bags. The latter bags, after use, were stored in a sanitation box on the spacecraft, according to the National Air and Space Museum.

They weren’t exactly foolproof, either, with a loose turd causing a stir on the Apollo 10 mission. Transcripts from the crew show nobody........

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