As you can imagine, the crew on the International Space Station is always on alert, constantly solving problems, and… repairing toilets? That is definitely something you don’t want to see happening in space. The crew is currently relying on the toilet on the Soyuz return capsule, but considering its limited capacity, fixing the broken toilet is critical.

As NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told the Associated Press, a working bathroom is a necessity like in any other home. According to a NASA report, the solid waste collector is working properly, but there are problems with the system for collecting liquid waste.

The solution to ISS crew’s problem will most probably lie in Discovery’s “hands,” although the Russian officials are still trying to find out the cause of the problem. Discovery is expected to deliver replacement parts for the toilet following the Monday docking with the ISS.

The toilet on the International Space Station has broken before; however, this has been the longest period of malfunction in its seven-year history.

Although everything seems to be a matter of time now, since we’re only days away from Discovery’s docking with the ISS, there is one more detail NASA will have to figure out: where to put the replacement parts, considering that Discovery’s payload capacity is entirely occupied by the Japanese Kibo laboratory.

When we think of space and astronauts, this is probably not one of the first things that come to our mind; however, urinating in space is trickier than some think, and a broken space toilet is just something you don’t want to hear of when in outer space.