In space everyone can hear you flush the toilet

Everyone’s favourite Canadian in space*, Commander Chris Hadfield, has shown us many awesome things aboard the International Space Station. And his latest is perhaps one of the most interesting – he’s flushed a space toilet.

Earlier today Commander Hadfield updated his SoundCloud page with some sounds of the ISS. His audioscapes let us listen to the everyday, but still fascinating, humms and whirrs of the football pitch-sized space station. From the mechanical clunks an ISS hatch closing to the Star Trekesque whizz of the station’s sleep station fan.

But, and this could be us, the most interesting new sound Commander Hadfield released was that of the station’s toilet ‘flushing’.

Yes, that’s right, the toilet on the ISS sound like a turbocharged vacuum cleaner (no wonder Howard is so proud of his work). As good as this audio is, we still have questions. How exactly do you use a space loo?

Ok, so except for space flushing we got some other interesting audio bits from the mic of Commander Hadfield, such as;

The sound of a space suit’s internal pump,

The noise a space suit makes when you turn it on,

Here’s what it sounds like when you’re going through pressure equalization for a space walk,

*with the possible exception of Nathan Fillion.