High winds delay SpaceX crew homecoming after six months in orbit
High winds delay SpaceX crew homecoming after six months in orbit (and the capsule’s toilet is broken – leaving all four astronauts in diapers!)
- The US, French and Japanese astronauts were supposed to leave the International Space Station on Sunday
- With gusts exceeding safety limits, SpaceX bumped the departure to Monday afternoon, with a night-time return to conclude their six-month mission
- The toilet in their capsule is broken, and so the four will need to rely on nappies while flying back to Earth
- In September, an urine tube came unglued during SpaceX first civilian launch.
- The toilet aboard Inspiration4 craft malfunctioned during the crew’s three-day journey around the Earth last month, causing urine to leak inside the capsule.
High winds off the Florida coast have prompted SpaceX to delay the return of four space station astronauts in orbit since spring – as they’ll be forced to wear diapers flying back to Earth after the company’s flagship Dragon capsule’s toilet broke.
The US, French and Japanese astronauts were supposed to leave the International Space Station on Sunday, with their capsule splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday morning.
However, due to gusts exceeding safety limits, SpaceX bumped the departure to Monday afternoon, with a night-time return to conclude their six-month mission.
Their trip home will now last eight hours, less than half as long as before.
The toilet in their capsule is broken, and so the four will need to rely on nappies while flying home.
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, left to right, Nasa astronaut Megan McArthur, Nasa astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in April (John Raoux/AP)
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur said during a press conference on Friday that the situation was ‘suboptimal,’ but NASA was not too worried about it.
‘Spaceflight is full of lots of little challenges,’ she said from space. ‘This is just one more that we’ll encounter and take care of in our mission. So we’re not too worried about it.’
In September, an urine tube came unglued during SpaceX first civilian launch.
The toilet aboard Inspiration4 craft malfunctioned during the crew’s three-day journey around the Earth last month, causing urine to leak inside the capsule.
William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who used to work for NASA, told the New York Times that bodily fluids collected under the floor of the Resilience capsule.
‘We didn’t really even notice it, the crew didn’t even notice it, until we got back,’ Gerstenmaier said.
When we got the vehicle back, we looked under the floor and saw the fact that there was contamination underneath the floor of Inspiration4.’
Urine began leaking from the toilet when a tube came unplugged and pooled beneath the floor panels.
The same malfunction was uncovered by the astronauts aboard the Dragon’s capsule Endurance as they pulled up floor panels in October, as staff worked to prevent zero-gravity discharge.
SpaceX is still aiming for a Wednesday night launch, at the earliest, of their replacements.
This flight has also been delayed by bad weather, as well as an astronaut’s undisclosed medical issue. The issue, described as minor, should be resolved by launch time, officials said.
Last week, SpaceX and Nasa flipped the order of the launch and landing because of the deteriorating weather and the looming deadline to get the capsule back from the space station.
SpaceX capsules are certified for a maximum 210 days in orbit, with the one currently up there now approaching 200 days.
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