Saturday April 4, 2026 | OFF-PLANET [Posted at 5:05 am PT | Updated 4:58 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The Artemis II crew in the early hours of Day 4 (this morning) were reporting a burning smell coming from the bathroom, potentially from the heater.
The smell has evidently become progressively stronger. On the livestream, the crew could be heard telling mission control in Houston that at this point they’re not particularly worried.
That conversation with NASA was carried out by Commander Reid Wiseman and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen.
Wastewater system update:
In an update to media later this afternoon, NASA officials said the smell from the wastewater system is probably from tapes and other materials are likely off-gassing,
By tilting the spacecraft to get a bit more sunlight onto some particular areas of the exterior (that are most of the time in shadow), that is helping release some of the urine from the system.
The system has a redundancy process (astronauts using bags to collect urine instead of venting it).
Half-way there:
The Orion space capsule (called Integrity for this mission) is now more than half way from Earth to the moon.
There will be a communications blackout for about 30 to 50 minutes when the Orion capsule travels behind the moon on Monday (April 7). Otherwise, the livestream connection is quite incredible, allowing mission control and the rest of the world (through the NASA YouTube channel) to follow this space venture in real time.
===== RELATED:
- Artemis II from Earth to Moon and back: Day 4 update (April 4, 2026)
- Artemis II: Day 3 meals & tech work (April 3, 2026)
- Artemis II: Col Jeremy Hansen says “It was a great burn!” (April 2, 2026)
- Day 2 technology details for Artemis II crew (April 2, 2026)
- Artemis II: troubleshooting some technical things (April 2, 2026)
- Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen heads to the moon (April 1, 2026)
- Artemis Mission Updates (NASA)
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