ORLANDO, Fla. – In the weeks leading up to the first astronaut launch from Florida in years, the question that came up repeatedly during media events with the two NASA astronauts who would be the first to fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was “how’s the bathroom on board?”
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were the first human passengers on SpaceX’s spacecraft and arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday. After launching from Kennedy Space Center Saturday, the astronauts had about 19 hours in the spacecraft before reaching their destination.
Recommended Videos
The veteran astronauts got to eat, sleep and yes, use the space commode. Hurley also got to manually fly the spacecraft twice en route to the ISS.
Prior to launch, Hurley and Behnken said they didn’t know how the restroom situation was because they didn’t have the experience with it to say. On Monday, during a Q&A with reporters while on the ISS once again the toilet came up.
[MORE COVERAGE: How Crew Dragon compares to flying on space shuttle from the first NASA astronauts to do both | How the astronauts’ sons are coping with their dads in space]
“Let’s see the toilet. I think we had a bet to see when that question was going to be asked about Dragon, and it works very similar to the one we were used to in the space shuttle and it worked very well we had no issues with it,” Hurley said.
Overall both astronauts were please with the SpaceX vehicle, singing its praises.
“It’s done just absolutely spectacularly, you know, it’s a very clean vehicle,” Hurley said. “I think most people think it’s a really cool looking vehicle. I know my son thinks so, and it does everything we needed to do for this mission so we’re very happy with that part of it.”
There was also much interest in what the astronauts ate prior to launch. Hurley had steak and eggs for breakfast. According to Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, it was astronaut’s choice on launch day.
The fascination with what the astronauts eat and the Dragon commode might speak to everyone because we all eat and we all, you know.
Subscribe to a weekly newsletter to receive the latest in space news directly to your inbox here.