This photograph provided by NASA, Astronauts, from left, Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough, Akihiko Hoshide and Megan McArthur, airs with chile peppers grown aboard the International Space Station connected Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. (NASA via AP) (Uncredited)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The astronauts who volition depart the International Space Station arsenic aboriginal arsenic this play volition beryllium stuck utilizing diapers connected the mode location due to the fact that of their capsule's breached toilet.

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur described the concern Friday arsenic “suboptimal" but manageable.

“Spaceflight is afloat of tons of small challenges,” she said during a quality league from orbit. “This is conscionable 1 much that we’ll brushwood and instrumentality attraction of successful our mission. So we’re not excessively disquieted astir it."

The travel location tin instrumentality up to 20 hours.

Mission managers could determine aboriginal Friday whether to bring McArthur and her 3 crewmates backmost successful their SpaceX capsule earlier launching their replacements. That motorboat already has been delayed much than a week by atrocious upwind and an undisclosed aesculapian contented involving 1 of the crew.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet told reporters that the past six months person been aggravated up there. The astronauts conducted a bid of spacewalks to upgrade the station's powerfulness grid, endured inadvertent thruster firings by docked Russian vehicles that sent the presumption into little spins, and hosted a backstage Russian movie unit — a abstraction presumption first.

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They besides had to woody with the toilet leak, pulling up panels successful their SpaceX capsule and discovering pools of urine. The occupation was archetypal noted during SpaceX's backstage formation successful September, erstwhile a conduit came unglued and spilled urine beneath the floorboards. SpaceX fixed the toilet connected the capsule awaiting liftoff, but deemed the 1 successful orbit unusable.

Engineers determined that the capsule had not been structurally compromised by the urine and was harmless for the thrust back.

On the culinary side, the astronauts grew the archetypal chile peppers successful abstraction — “a bully motivation boost,” according to McArthur. They got to illustration their harvest successful the past week, adding pieces of the greenish and reddish peppers to tacos.

“They person a bully spiciness to them, a small spot of a lingering burn," she said. "Some recovered that much troublesome than others.”

Also returning with McArthur and Pesquet: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. SpaceX launched them to the abstraction presumption connected April 23. Their capsule is certified for a maximum 210 days successful space, and with Friday marking their 196th time aloft, NASA is anxious to get them backmost arsenic soon arsenic possible.

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One American and 2 Russians volition stay connected the abstraction presumption pursuing their departure. While it would beryllium amended if their replacements arrived archetypal — successful bid to stock tips connected surviving successful abstraction — Kimbrough said the remaining NASA astronaut volition capable successful the newcomers.

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