Leaky toilet forces astronauts to use space-nappies on return to Earth

Astronauts Thomas Pesquet, Megan Arthur, Shane Kimbrough and Aki Hoshide will be rocking a space-nappy on their return to Earth.

A leaky loo has meant that astronauts will have to wear a space-nappy on their return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

The team of four astronauts will spend around 20 hours in the Space X capsule, when they set off back to Earth on Sunday 7 November, and touch down on Monday 8 November.

"Spaceflight is full of lots of little challenges," said Megan McArthur, one of the astronauts. "This is just one more that we'll encounter and take care of in our mission. So we're not too worried about it."

Similar to baby nappies, space-nappies or "undergarments" are a back-up option for astronauts in case the team need to go to the loo on the way back.

How did the toilet break?

Engineers at SpaceX first discovered there was an issue with its spacecraft's toilet last month while checking a different Crew Dragon capsule.

They discovered that one of the tubes attached to the toilet had become unglued, and was causing wee to leak out and pool under the floor.

Since then, they've discovered that the leaky loo issue has affected all three spacecraft the company operates.

Space X engineers have now fixed the toilet on the capsule on Earth ahead of the next lift-off, but have said that the toilet on the capsule docked on the ISS shouldn't be used.