Faulty toilet set off alarm during SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission

The first completely private mission to space was interrupted by an alarm linked to the Crew Dragon’s waste management system, requiring a response consisting of the four space tourists.

Nature calls, whether you are at at home or in orbit approximately 366 miles (590 kilometers) above Earth. There is an optimized microgravity toilets aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, but as CNN reports, it triggered an alarm during the recent Mission Inspiration4, causing stressful moments for the fully civilian crew.

The alarm signified a “significant” problem, but the crew did not immediately know the details of the problem, as crew member Jared Isaacman told CNN. Months of training had prepared them to meet the potential problems, however, so they kept their shit together, hum, and worked with ground controllers to find the source of the anomaly.

The alarm was ultimately traced to the washroom, which was experiencing “mechanical problems,” according to CNN. It seems the fans were pulling human wasting of the body were not functioning properly.

Crew Dragon’s onboard waste management system is nothing like a conventional toilet: The wall unit uses suction to collect the evicted human waste then stores it to keep it safe. During the toilet, the astronauts use a privacy curtain. This solution is far from perfect, but it is much better than the bags of shit used during the Apollo missions.

That the had toilet problems during the three-day mission was known previously. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said so in a Tweeter, while Inspiration4 mission director Scott “Kidd” Poteet described the “problems” with the waste management system at a post-mission press conference. Details were scarce, however, and it was not clear if floating waste was an issue during the mission. Not so fun fact, the astronauts had to deal with floating poo during Apollo 10.

Fortunately, Isaacman said, there was “no problem in the cabin with regard to this. “He said the toilet in space is a challenge and no one” really wants to go into the gory details. ”

The Inspiration4 crew had to remain calm while working with the ground controllers to resolve the issue. This was made all the more difficult by frequent interruptions during which the crew could not speak to SpaceX experts. Isaacman told CNN that “probably somewhere about 10% of our time in orbit we didn’t have [communication with the ground], and we were a very calm and cool team during that. Constant contact with the ground controllers was not possible, as Crew Dragon had limited access at NASA Near space network. The crew was “able to get by,“and they restarted the waste management system,” even under initially difficult circumstances, “he told CNN.

This whole episode is a not-so-subtle reminder that biology can be such an issue and our bodies are ill-suited to space. As Isaacman told CNN, his teammate Hayley Arceneaux received injections of Phenergan during the mission, a drug used to treat motion sickness and nausea. Arceneaux probably suffered from spatial adaptation syndrome, which afflicts numerous astronauts during their adaptation to microgravity.

Going to space feels like a total thrill, but future space tourists will have to contend with the nasty things that come with it, including glitchy toilets.

Following: Video shows Inspiration4 crew’s first view through SpaceX glass dome.