'Slate' Explainer: Love in Space

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MADELEINE BRAND, host:

This is DAY TO DAY from NPR News. I'm Madeleine Brand.

ALEX CHADWICK, host:

I'm Alex Chadwick. We're still following every detail in the astronaut love triangle story. Space veteran Lisa Nowak facing attempted murder charges after confronting a rival for the affections of another astronaut.

BRAND: Well, that got the explainer team at the online magazine Slate wondering has anyone had sex in space? Here is Slate's Andy Bowers with the answer.

Mr. ANDY BOWERS: Maybe. But it certainly didn't happen between Lisa Nowak and the object of her affection. They were never on the same mission so they couldn't possibly have joined the 62 Mile High Club. But some of their colleagues may have gone all the way, way up there, even though NASA won't comment. If astronauts have had space sex, it would have been very difficult. First off, there isn't much privacy. A space shuttle has almost no place for two people to hook up. The international space station is a more promising site for a tryst, with its separate compartments.

Still, speculation has been rampant over the years. The first space mission that included both men and women launched in 1982. The first married couple went to space in 1991, when training camp sweethearts Jan Davis and Mark Lee served together. Both have refused to answer questions about the nature of their relationship during the mission. In the 1990s rumors circulated about unorthodox coziness between a male and female cosmonaut on the Russian space station Mir, especially after a video got out showing one playfully splashing water on the other during the flight.

Space sex would probably be tricky; never mind the zero gravity, nausea and beads of sweat floating into the air; people often experience lower blood pressure in space, meaning reduced blood flow, meaning, well, you know what that means. By the way, if you've seen a document on the Internet describing a NASA study about sexual positions in outer space, it's a hoax.

BRAND: Andy Bowers is a multimedia editor for the online magazine Slate. That Explainer was compiled by Christopher Beam.

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