Cape Canaveral, Fla.: What was already being hailed as one of the most dramatic space missions in decades gained an unexpected subplot and it wasn’t another rocket launch milestone. It was a toilet malfunction on board the NASA Artemis II spacecraft.

Just hours after the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) booster lifted the Orion spacecraft into orbit on April 1, the crew of four encountered an unwelcome problem: the mission’s first in‑space toilet designed for deep space, suddenly stopped working.

Astronaut Christina Koch, veteran of multiple spaceflights, quickly became the mission’s improvised space plumber. She diagnosed and cleared the fault in the suction‑based system that manages waste in zero gravity, a problem that left the crew temporarily relying on backup bags and funnels.

By Thursday morning, ground teams confirmed that the toilet was once again operational, a relief to crew and mission planners alike.

But that wasn’t the end of the Artemis II crew’s comfort woes. Astronauts also reported that the Orion cabin was chilly, with temperatures hovering near 65°F (18°C), prompting them to pull out warmer layers stored in their luggage. Mission Control is actively working to stabilise the interior temperature.

Despite those human‑scaled struggles, the larger mission is unfolding as planned. The crew, three Americans and one Canadian, are set to complete the first translunar injection burn since the Apollo era, slinging Orion out of Earth orbit toward a fly‑around of the Moon before returning home with a Pacific Ocean splashdown on April 10.