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The Guardian:

US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.

Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.

I'm skeptical of this claim that Pierre Kohler made in 2000. Is there serious evidence nowadays?

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Carlo Alterego
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    Your link says *"This note was added on 30 January 2010: In the story below, the Nasa report cited by Pierre Kohler proved to be a hoax. See this [later explanatory Guardian blog](http://guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2007/dec/06/sexinspaceornot)"* – RedGrittyBrick Dec 13 '12 at 23:48
  • weren't the Russians all guys? – Greg McNulty Dec 13 '12 at 23:56
  • @GregMcNulty: [No](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tereshkova). – Keith Thompson Dec 13 '12 at 23:57
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    @Keith: However, it appears she travelled solo in [Vostok-6](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_6). – RedGrittyBrick Dec 14 '12 at 00:01
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    I remember a friend complaining about the local news in the early '90s. They had a promo asking roughly "Have astronauts already had sex in space?" and followed with their tag line "For the news you need to know!" My friend was asking why exactly she needed to know this. – Oddthinking Dec 14 '12 at 00:19
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    *"asking why exactly she needed to know this"* Prurient interest, plain and simple. Or at least that is why ... uh ... *my friend* wants to know. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Dec 14 '12 at 02:33
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    @dmckee: Oh, I'm not saying your friends prurient interest is off-topic. I was saying (a) the claim has been around longer than 2000, and (b) it is funny to hear it described as something "you need to know". – Oddthinking Dec 14 '12 at 12:01
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    I think I'd be interested in study results of human conception and gestation to birth in space. A pure 100% space baby. What kind of effect would zero-G have on the fetus, etc. Yeah, I think I'd be interested in that research. – jdstankosky Dec 19 '12 at 17:41
  • yes, the biological experiment would be interesting to know the results of. But I'm not at all interested in Big Brother like TV shows or celebrity columns in news rags, which is what OT was inferring. – jwenting Jul 26 '13 at 05:35
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    @GregMcNulty lol I misread _"weren't the Russians all gays?"_ – o0'. Feb 01 '14 at 19:37
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    I recall reading a report that NASA sent a married couple up to the ISS to experiment, but not sure if they actually had sex. The report said that their experiments revealed that sex in space is difficult, and may require a third person to hold at least one of the couple in place. The rational for the experiments was long term missions to Mars. – dont_shog_me_bro Sep 28 '17 at 10:59

1 Answers1

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The claim that NASA has asked people to have sex in space as a scientific experiment seems a bit far-fetched to me. I would expect them to experiment with animal mating first, which it doesn't seem they have done. (Update: Russia experimented with gecko mating in July 2014. The experiment was not successful.)

As for whether or not any sex-in-space has happened, that is harder to say. No one has publicly admitted to it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. There is this article in which an astronaut provides an adamant "no": No Time for Sex In Space, Astronaut Says. But that doesn't prove that it has never happened either. ("He's just jealous!") Astronauts are human and may give in to their emotions at times. You may recall that there was once an astronaut who put on astronaut diapers and drove a thousand miles to try to kill another astronaut's girlfriend. So you can take any notion that they are completely professional all the time, and throw it out of the airlock.

There is also this:

The first married couple to fly in space together were N. Jan Davis and Mark C. Lee who both served as mission specialists aboard Endeavour on STS-47 in September 1992. Lee and Davis had met during training for the flight and had married in secret. They disclosed their marriage to NASA shortly before the flight, when it was too late to train a substitute. NASA has since changed the rules and will not allow married astronauts on the same flight.

Source: Wikipedia (sourcing CNN)

Of course, they've never come out and said that they had sex while they were newlyweds in space.

Update: It looks like there may soon be a definitive "yes", as there are now plans to film an adult movie in space. It seems this was a crowdfunding campaign that did not raise enough funds.

Kip
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    *"You would expect [NASA] to experiment with animal mating [before asking astronauts to try it]"* Don't know that I buy that---aside from the beauracractic awkwardness of officially asking people to bonk in space---because you *can* simply ask people and they can bring creative intelligence to the job, while animals may be off their stride and may not be able to figure out how to proceed. Good answer, though. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Dec 20 '12 at 01:17
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    I think it's highly likely that someone has had sex in space. I mean, if you were up there for months on end, wouldn't you? – Django Reinhardt Apr 13 '13 at 19:17
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    @DjangoReinhardt given that the vital signs of the crews are monitored 24/7 and there are cameras all over the place, you'd have very little privacy and the rise in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, etc. etc. would set off alarm bells in mission HQ. Not a great backdrop for a little tette-a-tette, unless maybe you're both die hard exhibitionists, in which case you would likely fail to meet the psychological pattern requirements to be selected for the mission. – jwenting Jul 26 '13 at 05:39
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    @jwenting well... you might also expect the psychological screenings to filter out the type of person who might put on astronaut diapers so they can drive a thousand miles to kill another astronaut's girlfriend... – Kip Jul 26 '13 at 15:41
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    @jwenting Please provide a reference for *"unless maybe you're both die hard exhibitionists, in which case you would likely fail to meet the psychological pattern requirements to be selected for the mission"* –  Jul 28 '13 at 01:20
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    @jwenting What are you talking about? Have you watched any of the videos from the ISS? There's no cameras everywhere and they're not monitored 24/7. Where are you getting your information form? – Django Reinhardt Jul 29 '13 at 23:00
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    @DjangoReinhardt probably the scene in Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks takes all of the health sensors off and Houston has a problem with it – Kip Jul 29 '13 at 23:38
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    Kip: Ha! I wouldn't be surprised. Lol. @jwenting Here's what being on the ISS is ACTUALLY like. http://www.wimp.com/orbitaltour/ – Django Reinhardt Jul 29 '13 at 23:48
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    This doesn't prove anything one way or the other, but the ISS *does* have [pregnancy tests](http://space.stackexchange.com/a/2432/58). – called2voyage Apr 14 '14 at 16:04
  • Well, given that astronauts/kosmonauts are predominantly male one can assume the first intercourse in space was not of heterosexual nature. But the government is keeping a lid on the truth because Mankind is not ready. ;-) – Twinkles May 28 '14 at 08:23
  • @called2voyage - Those could also be in case a female astronaut got pregnant just before launch. – Bobson Oct 06 '14 at 17:00
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    @Bobson As I said, it doesn't prove anything one way or the other. It is, however, somewhat unlikely for an astronaut to get pregnant before launch without it being noticed in tests. – called2voyage Oct 06 '14 at 17:35
  • The "plans" to film an adult movie in space was an Indiegogo campaign several years ago which got no significant funding compared to how much money would be needed: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pornhub-space-program-sexploration#/ – hb20007 Aug 13 '21 at 13:53
  • @hb20007 thanks, i've updated my answer – Kip Aug 13 '21 at 14:29
  • @dmckee---ex-moderatorkitten Spiders have been to space already, and doing just fine (though it does take them a try to realize they should pick a direction if they want a sheet web). I doubt they'd have any trouble mating - other than the usual, that is. Rats in space seem to love to run in circles to generate their own gravity, which I do assume would pose some trouble while mating. I do wonder how long it would take pigeons to get used to low gravity - but I'm sure they'll like it in the end. – John Dvorak Aug 13 '21 at 15:17
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    The "long drive with astronaut diapers" story seems to be largely myth, and should probably have its own Skeptics question. Diapers (children's diapers as far as I can tell) were allegedly found in her car by police, but never entered into evidence. An officer claimed that she told him she'd worn them, but her lawyer claimed she didn't, and a lot of evidence was tossed out at trial due to misconduct by the same officer (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/evidence-tossed-against-jilted-astronaut/). The story was popular with standup comics, etc.; I think it was "too good to check". – benrg Aug 25 '21 at 06:42