MARION, Iowa — As excitement builds around this week’s launch of Artemis II mission, a surprisingly down-to-earth upgrade is getting attention: astronauts are finally getting a bit of privacy in space.
For the first time in a crewed lunar mission, astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis program spacecraft will have access to what’s being called a “hygiene bay”—essentially a small, private area that includes a modern space toilet.
In earlier missions, astronauts had very limited privacy and often relied on basic, sometimes awkward systems…