![]() ![]() ![]() It’s not yet clear how long the Crew-2 astronauts will be stuck inside their toilet-less spacecraft for the trip home. The good news is that tests carried out on the ground using similar materials suggest that corrosion will not have occurred on the Crew Dragon currently docked at the ISS, meaning it’s safe to fly. The Crew Dragon carrying the Crew-2 astronauts arrived at the space station in April, so SpaceX engineers were concerned that the contamination may have damaged the integrity of the spacecraft, which needs to be in perfect condition for its demanding trip back to Earth. The discovery of the design flaw prompted SpaceX to ask the Crew-2 astronauts - NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, plus French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan’s space agency - to check whether their Crew Dragon had any excreted fluids beneath the floor. Fortunately, the fluid didn’t pass into the main part of the capsule where it could have created a serious problem in the microgravity conditions. ![]() The existence of a fault became apparent during SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission in September when an alarm sounded on board another Crew Dragon spacecraft during the four-day orbital flight.ĭuring a post-mission inspection back on Earth, it was discovered that a tube carrying the urine to a storage tank beneath the floor of the Crew Dragon had come loose, causing the liquid to leak. ![]()
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