The Apollo 10 space mission was a successful dry run in advance the moon mission. They got within 9 nautical miles of the moon’s surface, but never touched down.
The onboard technology worked a charm, but there were still some issues to iron out.
“How do you do a poo in space?” is probably the question astronauts have to field most often. And the usual answer is, “with difficulty.”
Recently, transcripts were unearthed that underline just how tricky it really is. Apparently, the toilet systems themselves worked well, but there was a need for great accuracy, and not all of the men onboard were quite as accurate as required.
This is the sort of story that sounds fake, but it was in the Daily Mail so it must be true right?
The Daily Mail has a slightly bigger reach and budget than me, and they interviewed a past commander of the International Space Station who confirmed that accuracy is key when unloading your bowels in space.
She also mentioned that “there’s a selection of paper, including a soft kind for U.S. astronauts and a coarser, rough variety preferred by Russian cosmonauts.” Brilliant.
Here is the official transcript of Thomas Stafford (Commander – CDR), John Young (Command Module Pilot – CMP) and Eugene Cernan (Lunar Module Pilot – LMP) on the Apollo 10 mission in ’69:
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