Courtesy of the PSAI

"Houston, we have a problem."

Although that sentence was famously spoken during the Apollo 13 mission, it could have been restated as, "Brevard County, we have a problem," for the area near the launch of the Apollo 16 mission. A massive crowd of approximately a million people attended the launch of Apollo 16 in the area around Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 16, 1972. An official quoted in an Associated Press newspaper article from that time said, “How 1 million people are going to get along with 25 porta-johns is anybody’s guess.”

Read more about the Apollo 16 mission to the moon.

From the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 to the Apollo Space Program launches from 1969 to 1972, the need for adequate numbers of portable restrooms became apparent. Portable restrooms became a critical component in event planning from this point forward.

For even more interesting facts on the history of our industry and of the Portable Sanitation Association International, visit www.psai.org and order your History Book today. All proceeds benefit the PSAI Scholarship Program.