A toilet on the International Space Station broke and was out-of-order for two weeks. This almost became a serious problem, as you could imagine (It all floats up there, folks). Luckily Russians were able send up a spare, and quite costly, part on NASA’s space shuttle Discovery. It was successfully replaced yesterday.

The problem when it comes to space stations or any other major feat of science: We always skip over the little things. We’re too busy focused on the rockets, satellites and missions to mars; not the mundane – but essentially critical stuff – like toilets.

My simple, cost-effective recommendation for avoiding another harmful and expensive bathroom breakdown in space: Use the courtesy flush. As we now know, the inside of a cramped shuttle is no place to get careless with what could be a potentially mission-ending BM.

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