The astronauts who will depart the International Space Station on Sunday
will be stuck using diapers on the way home because of their capsule's
broken toilet.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur described the situation Friday as "suboptimal"
but manageable. She and her three crewmates will spend 20 hours in their
SpaceX capsule, from the time the hatches are closed until Monday morning's
planned splashdown.
"Spaceflight is full of lots of little challenges," she said during a news
conference from orbit. "This is just one more that we'll encounter and take
care of in our mission. So we're not too worried about it."
After a series of meetings Friday, mission managers decided to bring
McArthur and the rest of her crew home before launching their replacements.
That SpaceX launch already had been delayed more than a week by bad weather
and an undisclosed medical issue involving one of the crew.
SpaceX is now targeting liftoff for Wednesday night at the earliest.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who will return with McArthur, told
reporters that the past six months have been intense up there. The
astronauts conducted a series of spacewalks to upgrade the station's power
grid, endured inadvertent thruster firings by docked Russian vehicles that
sent the station into brief spins, and hosted a private Russian film crew—a
space station first.
They also had to deal with the toilet leak, pulling up panels in their
SpaceX capsule and discovering pools of urine. The problem was first noted
during SpaceX's private flight in September, when a tube came unglued and
spilled urine beneath the floorboards. SpaceX fixed the toilet on the
capsule awaiting liftoff, but deemed the one in orbit unusable.
Engineers determined that the capsule had not been structurally compromised
by the urine and was safe for the ride back. The astronauts will have to
rely on what NASA describes as absorbent "undergarments."
On the culinary side, the astronauts grew the first chile peppers in
space—"a nice moral boost," according to McArthur. They got to sample their
harvest in the past week, adding pieces of the green and red peppers to
tacos.
"They have a nice spiciness to them, a little bit of a lingering burn," she
said. "Some found that more troublesome than others."
Also returning with McArthur and Pesquet: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and
Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. SpaceX launched them to the space
station on April 23. Their capsule is certified for a maximum 210 days in
space, and with Friday marking their 196th day aloft, NASA is eager to get
them back as soon as possible.
One American and two Russians will remain on the space station following
their departure. While it would be better if their replacements arrived
first—in order to share tips on living in space—Kimbrough said the remaining
NASA astronaut will fill in the newcomers.