A Brief History of Diapers in Space

The United States government had a problem. Their spacemen could not easily get in and out of their cumbersome suits. Bathroom breaks would be limited while working on the lunar surface. The men needed to wear diapers. Those in charge decided that the public did not need to know. The men were not just spacemen. They were larger than life, with jobs in the heavens. Astronauts are heroes. A decision was made: The diaper would be called a “Fecal Management Subsystem.”

“NASA did not want the ‘hero’ image of the astronaut diminished by having him wear a diaper,” according to the public display of the Defecation Collection Device at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. The great diaper coverup lasted for decades. But the thing about some heroes is, they tend to tell the truth, eventually. So the secret got out. And that was a good thing, because the secret got out at a time when people wanted to start acting normal about such a normal thing like a diaper. We know that the adult diaper is the first thing an astronaut puts on, followed by the cooling garment that keeps temps low because the space suit doesn’t allow body heat to escape. The space suit itself has about 11 layers to keep the astronauts safe in the void of space. As part of the suit, a straw is available at all times for the astronaut to sip water, furthering the need for what is now known as the Maximum Absorbency Garment, otherwise known as MAGs. They are really pull-on diapers, but MAGs sounds cooler.

MAGs work like regular disposable diapers, wicking moisture away from the skin and holding it in absorbent material against the outer shell. (For cloth diapers, which astronauts do not use, the moisture is held in absorbent insert layers.) After all, NASA experiences delays, and astronauts have to wait in various places.

NASA’s oversight of the physiological needs of its astronauts first surfaced when Alan Shepherd was repeatedly delayed in the Freedom 7 in 1961. He was about to become the first man launched into space and ended up peeing in his pants on the launch pad.

So NASA got to work on an absorbent pad for the launch pad, and it wasn’t long before scientists were documenting how much poop astronauts were producing. Seriously. See #3 source below.

You can learn more about the fascinating history of how astronauts have peed and pooped in space, including a list of NASA space toilets in this comprehensive Business Insider article.

Other sources:

https://www.space.com/astronauts-wear-diapers-on-spacewalks.html

https://history.nasa.gov/SP-368/s6ch2.htm