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- SpaceX sent four civilians to space earlier in September as part of the Inspiration4 mission.
- The crew had a problem with the toilet after an inside fan malfunction, according to a CNN interview.
- SpaceX staff had to teach them how to fix it, but were interrupted by communication failures.
The world’s first fully civilian astronaut crew faced an unexpected problem when they flew into orbit earlier this month – they had to fix the toilet fan after it sounded an alarm.
The Inspiration4 mission took off on September 16, sending four civilian astronauts into orbit for three days aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mentioned in a tweet on September 21 that the Inspiration4 crew had “some challenges” with the toilet, which was located at the nose of the Crew Dragon spacecraft inside a rooftop. in glass dome. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, team member Jared Isaacman explained what happened.
The toilets in the space have fans to generate suction, ensuring that all human waste goes in the right direction – but the spacecraft’s fan malfunctioned, setting off an alarm, Isaacman said.
Isaacman told CNN that the SpaceX team needed to instruct the Inspiration4 team on how to fix the fan, but frequent communication failures interrupted the process.
“I would say 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, ”Isaacman told CNN.
“We were able to work on it and obtain [the toilet] even going with what was initially difficult circumstances, so there was never anything like it, you know, in the booth or anything like that, ”Isaacman said.
Isaacman said the Inspiration4 crew had previously told NASA astronauts about the toilet, and the astronauts told them that “using the toilet in space is difficult, and you have to be very – what was word ? – very nice to another. “
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