Toilet troubles, queasiness, and even vomiting are typical for astronauts.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is one of the most advanced and high-tech companies on the planet. Even so, they still must deal with everyday problems — like toilet troubles.
During the recent SpaceX Dragon flight, crew was forced to deal with an in-space emergency. But it had nothing to do with the central mechanics of the spaceship.
Instead, a blaring alarm notified the crew that there were waste management issues, CNN explains.
Because of gravity, toilets work differently in space. To keep waste contained, toilets have fans that create suction. That suction pulls the waste from the user and stores it away. And that's what was malfunctioning.
As expected, when Scott "Kidd" Poteet, an Inspiration4 mission director, made public the news of the toilet problems, speculation was that things got…messy.
But he insists that wasn't the case. "I want to be 100% clear: There were no issues in the cabin at all as it relates to that," he told reporters.
"Nobody really wants to get into the gory details," Jared Isaacman noted. The billionaire philanthropist was one of the four Inspiration4 crew on the three-day flight.
He adds that NASA astronauts warned them about possible bathroom hiccups. They said, "using the bathroom in space is hard, and you've got to be very — what was the word? — very kind to one another," he noted.
Toilet troubles, queasiness, and even vomiting are typical for astronauts, CNN points out.
And despite the mishap, everyone on the SpaceX flight was safe and accident-free.
