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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station do not wash clothes: they reuse garments for planned intervals, then put them into the station’s trash stream. NASA’s clothing-planning table gives underwear a two-day usage interval, cargo pants 30 days, and a planned clothing mass of 75 kilograms per crew member for one year. Used clothes leave aboard departing cargo spacecraft, which burn up with their contents during atmospheric reentry.
How astronauts handle laundry on the ISS
There is no operational washing machine or laundry service aboard the ISS. Astronauts wear garments again for set intervals and receive replacement clothing on resupply missions. NASA put it plainly in a 2021 article: “There is no laundry in space… yet.” NASA Glenn Research Center’s account of space-washing-machine design concepts describes a design challenge, not equipment installed on the station.
That routine is a logistics choice as much as a hygiene one. Washing would require water, equipment, and a way to handle the resulting wastewater in a closed spacecraft environment. For the ISS, the current approach is to provision clothing, reuse it according to garment-specific plans and crew practice, and dispose of it rather than wash and recycle it aboard.
What NASA’s clothing intervals mean
NASA’s clothing-usage table in technical report CTSD-ADV-1088 lists planned usage intervals for different garments. The figures are provisioning assumptions, not a rule that every astronaut follows identically or a guarantee of an individual’s personal routine.
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| Garment or planning measure | NASA table figure | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Underwear | 2 days | Planned usage interval |
| Cargo pants | 30 days | Planned usage interval |
| Clothing mass for 1 crew member over 1 year | 75 kg | Planned provisioning mass in the table’s “Total Mass (kg) – 1 Crew” row |
The 75 kg figure is a planning estimate for clothing provisioned for one crew member over a year; it is not a measured total of what every astronaut actually wears. Garment schedules also differ: NASA’s space-hygiene discussion notes that clothing routines vary, and some exercise garments may be hung to dry and reused. NASA technical report CTSD-ADV-1088 provides the table values.
Where used clothes go
Clothing eventually becomes station trash. NASA says common trash includes clothing, food packaging, and wipes. Crew members sort waste into wet and dry trash bags; the bags are held temporarily and then loaded onto a spent resupply vehicle. The clothes are not brought back to Earth or recycled aboard the station. See NASA’s overview of ISS trash processing.
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When a cargo spacecraft departs with its waste load, the vehicle and its contents are directed to atmospheric reentry, where they vaporize. The clothing therefore leaves the station as part of a disposal stream rather than returning as cargo. NASA describes this process in its explanation of how departing cargo vehicles dispose of waste: Heat Shield Testing Recycles Waste on Earth.
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On the ISS, regular cargo deliveries make replacement clothing possible. A lunar or Mars mission with less frequent resupply would have different constraints: crews would need to carry more clothing, wear it longer, or develop a way to clean garments without undermining other spacecraft systems.
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NASA’s coverage of the PGTIDE laundry investigation describes research into detergent formulation and stability in microgravity, not routine ISS laundry. The underlying engineering challenges include limited water per wash, keeping detergent and airborne residues compatible with air-purification systems, and treating wash water so it can be recovered for drinking. Mark Sivik, a research fellow at Procter & Gamble, summarized those challenges in NASA’s report on the experiment. NASA’s PGTIDE experiment coverage does not establish that a laundry system has been selected or is operating aboard the ISS.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why other clothing-mass estimates differ
A separate NASA conference paper published in 2016 estimated clothing logistics for a four-person crew at 300 kg (662 lb) and 0.73 m³ (26 ft³) per year. That analysis has a different crew-size scope and assumptions from the CTSD-ADV-1088 table’s 75 kg for one crew member over one year, so the two figures should not be treated as competing measurements or combined into a single estimate. The paper is available from the 46th International Conference on Environmental Systems proceedings.
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