Relief for astronauts as fault fixed on Nasa’s $30m Artemis II toilet

Nasa's Artemis II mission blasted off on Wednesday with its state of the art toilet, designed to improve on complaints about previous arrangements. Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

A blinking fault light on Nasa’s Orion spacecraft signalled an unwelcome setback at the start of the historic Artemis II mission: the toilet was out of order.

Fortunately for the four astronauts on board for the 10-day mission, the issue was quickly resolved, with mission control confirming: “Happy to report that toilet is go for use. We do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid, and then letting it run a little bit after donation.”