Artemis II Crew Jokes About ‘Most Important Piece of Equipment On Board’ After Calling Houston About Faulty Toilet

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The crew of the Artemis II moonshot mission encountered a very human challenge when the Orion capsule’s toilet malfunctioned as soon as the crew reached orbit.

Shortly after a flawless blastoff on Wednesday, the crew called Houston to report a problem with the “lunar loo” that forced the astronauts to dig out the contingency urine storage bags.

The Washington Post posted video of the comms exchange between astronaut Christina Koch and Mission Control as she attempted to troubleshoot the issue.

“Okay, Christina, we’re ready for you to attempt reactivation of the toilet by removing the urine hose from the cradle,” came the voice from Mission Control. “Please allow it to run for one minute, and then if that’s joy, you can deactivate toilet and give us a call.”

“It works!” A relieved Koch exclaimed.

NASA uses the word “joy” to indicate that an action was successful, with the phrase “no joy” meaning they’re headed back to the drawing board.

In a NASA interview, Koch declared, “We were all breathing a sigh of relief when it turned out to be just fine. It was just an issue, I think, of sitting for a long time and needing a little time to warm up. A priming issue. But we did originally think that there could have been something potentially fouling up the motor. And luckily, we are all systems go!”

“I’m the space plumber. I’m proud to call myself the space plumber,” Koch joked. I like to say that it is probably the most important piece of equipment on board.”

As the capsule made its way around the Earth and toward the moon, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen declared, “Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of, and it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the moon.”

Koch and Hansen are joined by crewmates, commander Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover.

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