For the First Time, a Toilet Heads Into Deep Space

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For the First Time, a Toilet Heads Into Deep Space

The Orion spacecraft will take four crew members and one commode around the moon and back as part of the Artemis II mission. In April 2025, National Geographic worked with NASA and filmed the astronauts at an Orion space capsule model in Houston.

The crazy thing about the toilet is that even though it’s in the floor, once you’re in there, you don’t have a clue. We’re going to take a trip into the toilet here. Now, one interesting thing is, yes, it’s in the floor, but – bye, guys, I got some business to take care of, see you – once we’re in here, a couple of things become important. You need handholds because you’re just floating up all over the place. You need to keep yourself down on the toilet seat. Also, you can’t tell which way is up. And finally, all of this wild orange foam is actually taped-over insulation because our toilet is a little bit on the loud side. So you have to wear hearing protection when you’re in here. But we’re making that work.

The Orion spacecraft will take four crew members and one commode around the moon and back as part of the Artemis II mission. In April 2025, National Geographic worked with NASA and filmed the astronauts at an Orion space capsule model in Houston.

By Jamie Leventhal

April 1, 2026

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