Crew exchange on the ISS: Astronauts return to diapers

Monday, November 8, 2021

ISS. on crew exchange
Astronauts return to diapers

Before German cosmonaut Maurer’s flight to the ISS, the four astronauts make it into place and return to Earth. Since the toilet on his SpaceX transport ship is broken, he is undocked in a diaper. A NASA astronaut sees it as a “small challenge”.

Without a functioning toilet on their “Crew Dragon,” four astronauts undocked from the International Space Station on Monday. The so-called “Crew-2” – which includes French astronaut Thomas Pesquet as well as NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan MacArthur as well as Japanese cosmonaut Akihiko Hoshide – is to land at sea from the US state of Florida. Like Tuesday, the US space agency NASA announced.

Because the toilet on board Elon Musk’s “Crew Dragon” of space company SpaceX is broken, the four astronauts who have been on the ISS since April have to wear a diaper of sorts when they return. MacArthur had already said in a press conference that it was “sub-optimal”. “But there are many small challenges in space travel and we are ready to get them under control.”

The undocking was originally planned for Sunday, but was postponed until Monday due to inclement weather conditions.

The quartet now left the space station before the arrival of German cosmonaut Mathias Maurer and three other astronauts. His flight into space from Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida had to be postponed several times. Bad weather was once cited as the reason for the postponement of space flight.

In another postponement, one of the crew members had a “slight medical problem,” according to NASA. Originally the rocket “Crew-3” with Maurer was scheduled to launch on 30 October. The start is now planned for Wednesday at 9:03 p.m. (local time; Thursday 3:03 a.m. CET). After the closure of “Crew-2”, the ISS is manned by only two Russian cosmonauts and one American cosmonaut.