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A space toilet or zero-gravity toilet is a toilet that can be used in a Weightlessness environment. In the absence of weight, the collection and retention of liquid and solid waste is directed by use of airflow. Since the air used to direct the waste is returned to the cabin, it is filtered beforehand to control odor and cleanse bacteria. In older systems, wastewater is vented into space, and any solids are compressed and stored for removal upon landing. More modern systems expose solid waste to vacuum pressures to kill bacteria, which prevents odor problems and kills pathogens.
The crew use a specially shaped funnel and hose for urine (suction cup) and the seat for bowel movements. The funnel and seat can be used simultaneously, reflecting feedback from female astronauts. The space toilet seat may look uncomfortably small and pointy, but in microgravity, it is ideal. It provides ideal body contact to make sure that everything goes where it should.
The space toilet includes foot restraints and handholds for astronauts to keep themselves from floating away. Everyone positions themselves differently while "going", and consistent astronaut feedback indicated that the traditional thigh straps were a hassle.
Toilet paper, wipes, and gloves are disposed of in water-tight bags. Solid waste in individual water-tight bags is compacted in a removable fecal storage canister. A small number of fecal canisters are returned to Earth for evaluation, but most are loaded into a cargo ship that burns up on re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. Currently, fecal waste is not processed for water recovery, but NASA is studying this capability.
The WCS required many hours of training. For urination, a hose was used. For defecation, with a diameter for the hole in the seat—much smaller than in a conventional toilet—the user's bottom needed to be exactly centered on the seat. NASA built a simulator with a video camera in the hole; those training used a crosshair to learn how to position their bodies, while other astronauts watched and made jokes. (2025). 9781496212252, University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9781496212252
The WCS had several malfunctions in flight. On the eight-day STS-3 test flight, the toilet had broken down, and its two-man crew (Jack Lousma and Gordon Fullerton) resorted to fecal containment devices (FCD) for waste elimination and disposal. An anomaly of the liquid disposal system on Discovery during its maiden flight resulted in a buildup of frozen excrements outside the orbiter, which was then removed by means of Canadarm. During STS-46, one of the fans malfunctioned, and crew member Claude Nicollier was required to perform in-flight maintenance (IFM).
On May 21, 2008, the gas–liquid separator pump failed on the 7-year-old toilet in Zvezda, although the solid-waste portion was still functioning. The crew attempted to replace various parts, but was unable to repair the malfunctioning part. In the interim, they used a manual mode for urine collection. The crew had other options: to use the toilet on the Soyuz transport module (which only has capacity for a few days of use) or to use urine-collection bags as needed. A replacement pump was sent from Russia in a Diplomatic bag, so that Space Shuttle Discovery could take it to the station as part of mission STS-124 on June 2.
While the Soyuz spacecraft had an onboard toilet facility since its introduction in 1967 (due to the additional space in the Orbital Module), all Project Gemini and Project Apollo spacecraft required astronauts to urinate in a so-called "relief tube", in which the contents were dumped into space, while fecal matter was collected in specially designed bags.Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger: Architecture for astronauts : an activity-based approach. Springer, 2011, , Hygiene Apollo – Resume Toilett, p. 134–137. The facilities were so uncomfortable that, to avoid using them, astronauts ate less than half the space food. The Skylab space station, used by NASA between May 1973 and March 1974, had an onboard WCS facility, which served as a prototype for the Shuttle's WCS, but also featured an onboard shower facility. The Skylab toilet, which was designed and built by the Fairchild Republic Corp. on Long Island, was primarily a medical system to collect and return to Earth samples of urine, feces and vomit, so that calcium balance in astronauts could be studied.
Even with the facilities, astronauts and cosmonauts for both launch systems employ pre-launch bowel clearing and to minimize the need for defecation. The Soyuz toilet has been used on a return mission from Mir.
NPP Zvezda is a Russian developer of space equipment, which includes zero-gravity toilets.
A $23 million next-generation space toilet called the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) is being developed by NASA for Orion and the International Space Station. The UWMS is the first space toilet designed specifically for women as well as men, easing the use of space toilets for women and use for stool and urine at the same time. It is designed to be fully automated, quieter, lighter, more reliable, more hygienic and more compact than previous systems. Among its innovations, the UWMS relies on a 3D printing technique to incorporate metals including Inconel, Elgiloy, and titanium that can withstand the acids used to treat urine within the toilet. The UWMS was first delivered to the ISS in October 2020.
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