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This Saturday will mark the 10-year anniversary of the blast of airborne feces emitted from astronaut Dr. James Woodworth’s digestive tract, which has since been recycled through the International Space Station air supply system over nine thousand times after its release in 2001. The gaseous excrement has become a staple of the station and is now used to easily indicate seniority based on how used to the smell the astronauts have become.
Newcomers often complain about the smell for the first few months aboard while veterans say they now don’t think they could work without it. NASA chemists are working to synthesize the scent for returning astronauts, many of whom struggle to acclimate back to Earth’s low concentration of Woodworth’s air-poop.
