'Space plumber' Christina Koch fixes Artemis' privy issues

NASA's moonbound astronauts have reason to celebrate, and not just because their launch went so well.

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Astronauts Anne McClain, left, Nick Hague, center, Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan pose with new NASA-supplied toilet.

(NASA via AP)

Their toilet is now working.The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis II crew reached orbit on Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Christina Koch through some plumbing tricks to fix it.

The Artemis II astronaut became a “space plumber” for the day, after the spacecraft encountered toilet trouble.

On the first day of the historic mission, the crew reported the $30m (£22.6m) Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) onboard the rocket was not working due to an issue with the toilet fan, according to the Independent.

After mission control teams on the ground assessed data, they were able to fix the problem with the help of the Artemis II crew, notably Christina Koch.

Commenting on the malfunction, Koch said: “I'm proud to call myself the space plumber”, adding the whole crew breathed a sigh of relief when the “most important piece of equipment” began functioning as normal.