Astronauts on the International Space Station will be strapping in more than once when they return to Earth later this month as the toilets on their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule have malfunctioned. Because of this, the crew will rely on diapers.
When NASA's Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency return from their trip in space, they will have to use "undergarments" for waste management, according to Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew program manager.
Stich shared that he does not think the undergarments will need to be used, but it is something being considered.
"Our intent is to not use the system at all for the return leg home because of what we've seen with the fluids we are talking about," Stich said.
The use of diaper-like undergarments is not uncommon for space trips, and they entered discussion after engineers noticed the issue with the SpaceX capsule toilet.
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The troubles were noticed following the return of SpaceX's three-day civilian mission aboard the SpaceX Resilience capsule in September.
The vice president of SpaceX, William Gerstenmaire, shared that the issue with the capsule was not even noticed until after the crew got back to Earth.
"When we got the vehicle back, we looked under the floor and saw the fact that there was contamination underneath the floor," Gerstenmaier said to the New York Times.
One of the civilian astronauts, Jared Isaacman, also made it clear that there were no bodily fluids or waste loose in the capsule.
"I want to be 100% clear: There were no issues in the cabin at all as it relates to that," Isaacman told CNN.
