Artemis 2 (artemis 2) lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard NASA’s Space Launch System, sending four astronauts on a 10-day lunar flyby mission and marking the first crewed flight of Orion and SLS.
The crew includes Reid Weisman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist, and they will test Orion systems and rendezvous procedures during the trip.
Flight controllers planned apogee-raising burns by the rocket’s upper stage to send Orion on a free-return trajectory that will loop around the moon and carry the crew farther from Earth than previous human missions.
Toilet Glitch, Onboard Fixes, And Operational Context
Within hours of launch the crew reported a malfunction in Orion’s Universal Waste Management System, with Christina Koch noting an issue starting parts of the toilet that handle urine collection, NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said.
Controllers described a fan jam and engineers on the ground guided Koch through troubleshooting steps, and Mission Control’s Capcom Amy Dill later reported the toilet was cleared and "go for use," with a recommended warmup procedure before urination.
Norm Knight, NASA’s director of flight operations, attributed the problem to a controller issue on the toilet, and NASA confirmed that fecal collection still functioned while urine capability was being restored.
The crew used contingency equipment during the outage, filling a Collapsible Contingency Urinal that was emptied overboard following Dill’s instructions, and Lockheed Martin’s Blaine Brown noted the system’s importance as either a luxury or necessity aboard Orion.
Officials emphasized that Orion carries backup waste collection options similar to Apollo-era contingency bags, and that the hygiene bay offers a compact, private facility built into the capsule floor to support crew needs.
As the mission proceeds, flight teams will monitor life support, propulsion, and manual control tests ahead of the Trans-Lunar Injection burn that will place Orion on its final path around the moon, and flight director Emily Nelson said the crew will keep learning about the vehicle for future docking and landing missions.
