Inside the Secret, Surprising Challenges of Astronauts’ Bathroom Breaks in Space

Young: “God Almighty” (laughter)

Cernan: “Here’s another goddam turd. What’s the matter with you guys? Here, give me a —”

(laughter from Young and Stafford)

Stafford: “It was just floating around?”

Cernan: “Yes.”

Stafford (laughing): “Mine was stickier than that.”

Young: “Mine was too. It hit that bag —”

Cernan: “I don’t know whose that is. I can neither claim it nor disclaim it (laughter).”

Young: “What the hell is going on here?”

Just who was responsible for this close encounter of the turd kind remains a mystery to this day, though we did a deep dive investigation on it and our theory of who done it in our video To Boldly Go Where No Fecal Matter Has Gone Before if you care to watch after this video.

And even if waste remained safely inside the bags, with space inside the Gemini and Apollo capsules at a premium, finding storage for used bags and other trash quickly became a challenge. This lack of adequate waste disposal led Gemini V astronauts Leroy “Gordon” Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad to dub their August 1965 mission “eight days in a garbage can.” Gemini VII astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell fared even worse, orbiting the earth for 14 days in a space no larger than the front seat of a Volkswagen Beetle with no good way of disposing of their trash. Yet despite their enduring notoriety, FCAs remain in use to this day as a backup in case the space toilets aboard the ISS fail.

By the end of the 1960s, it became clear that if astronauts were to spend long periods of time in space, they needed a more comfortable – and dignified – means of answering nature’s call. The Soviets were the first to fly a proper space toilet, which has been standard equipment on the Soyuz spacecraft since its maiden flight in 1967 – and to learn more about this flight’s tragic ending, please check out our previous video The Most Disastrous Space Mission Ever Executed. This installation was made possible by the Soyuz’s large elliptical orbital module, which sits above the bell-shaped descent module and is jettisoned just before reentry. Like nearly all space toilets developed since, the Soyuz facilities consist of two main parts: a suction hose with a funnel for collecting urine, which is vented into a chamber lined with absorbent foam; and a commode which uses a fan and airflow to suck faeces into plastic bags, which are then sealed and stored onboard.

Meanwhile, the first American space toilet was flown aboard the Skylab space station, which hosted three crews between May 1973 and February 1974. Like the Soyuz facilities, the Skylab toilet – designed by the Fairchild Republic Corporation – used a fan to suck faeces into a plastic bag. The astronauts then used an electric heater and vacuum from outside to dry the excrement, preventing it from fermenting and fouling the space station air. A separate suction hose was used to collect urine. Adding to the sanitary arrangements, Skylab was unique in being the first and last spacecraft in history to feature a microgravity shower. This was enclosed in a telescoping cylindrical curtain and featured foot restraints, a water sprayer nozzle on a flexible hose, and a vacuum system for carrying away wastewater. Astronauts were provided with 420 terrycloth towels, colour-coded to each astronaut. Today, astronauts aboard the ISS keep themselves clean using wet wipes, no-rinse shampoo, and similar products.

For the Space Transport System or STS program – better known as the Space Shuttle – NASA developed a new, more sophisticated space toilet known as the Waste Collection System or WCS. Like earlier systems, the WCS used a vacuum hose to collect urine, though it featured two different detachable heads for male and female astronauts. The male head was funnel-shaped, while the female head was elliptical, with small holes around the rim to allow airflow and prevent excessive suction. The collected urine was then jettisoned overboard. For #2, the WCS featured a special seat with foot stirrups, handholds, a seatbelt, and roller-coaster-esque thigh restraints to hold the astronaut in place. Early versions of the design featured a rapidly-spinning “slinger/shredder” mechanism to break up the waste and direct it onto the walls of the collection tank; however, astronauts understandably objected to having what amounted to a giant garbage disposal so close to their private parts, so the design was changed to use a suction fan as in earlier space toilets. This fan distributed the waste onto the walls of a cylindrical collection tank; after they were finished their business, astronauts would open a valve to expose the tank to the vacuum of space, flash-freeze drying the contents and preventing odours from forming. Toilet paper, wipes, and other hygiene products were placed in sealed plastic bags and disposed of in a separate compartment.

To ensure a tight seal and minimize leakage, the hole in the WCS seat was only 100 millimetres or 4 inches in diameter – much smaller than on a conventional toilet. Precise positioning of the user’s body was therefore essential, and prior to flight astronauts underwent extensive training on a space toilet simulator – no, really – at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. This simulator featured lights to indicate to the trainee if they were in the proper position, as well as an internal camera to allow an instructor to check the trainee’s alignment (and you thought your work onboarding was awkward…). As every body is different, each astronaut quickly learned what position worked best for them. As veteran American astronaut Mike Massimo explains: