SpaceX works to fix toilet issue in capsules ahead of Crew 3's weekend launch

Before launching four more astronauts, SpaceX is addressing some toilet issues in its capsules. The firm and NASA want to ensure that the toilet leaks do not jeopardise the capsule's early Sunday launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

According to William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who used to work for NASA, a tube got unglued during SpaceX's first private flight last month, pouring pee over fans and beneath the floor, AP reported. An identical issue was just detected inside the space station's Dragon capsule, he told reporters on October 25, Monday night. As a long-term solution, SpaceX has welded on the urine-flushing tube inside the company's newest capsule, Endurance, named by its US-German crew. NASA has not yet completed its examination of the last-minute repair.

Gerstenmaier was quoted by AP as saying that the urine accumulated beneath the floor panels of the Dragon capsule in orbit was less than that of the one that transported a billionaire and three people on a three-day mission. That's because the NASA-led crew only stayed in it for one day before heading to the space station. Gerstenmaier further said that SpaceX is undertaking testing to ensure that the spilt liquid did not impair the orbiting capsule during the last six months, AP reported. Any structural damage could jeopardise astronauts' return to Earth next month. He stated that the final testing should be finished later this week.

This will be SpaceX's fourth NASA astronaut launch and its fifth passenger mission in total. Following the retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA turned to SpaceX and Boeing to ferry personnel to and from the space station. Until SpaceX took up the job last year, American astronauts rode on Russian rockets.

SpaceX Crew 3 to launch on Sunday

The next team of astronauts to go to the International Space Station, SpaceX Crew-3, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, October 26 in preparation for the launch this weekend. NASA SpaceX Crew-3 is expected to launch from Launch Complex 39A on Sunday, October 31 at 2:21 a.m. aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The launch, which was scheduled for Saturday, has been pushed back to allow for further "spacecraft processing."

According to NASA, European Space Agency astronaut Mathias Maurer as well as NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kyala Barron, are scheduled to dock with the International Space Station early Monday, November 1, roughly 22 hours after the Crew-3 launch date. The International Space Station will host four astronauts for six months. On this mission, Chari, Barron, and Maurer will be making their first spaceflights, while Marshburn will be doing his third.

(With inputs from AP, Image: AP)