Has anyone tried to fornicate in space?

No one that we know of has had sex in space, but apparently, it’s become a very hot subject.

Rumors, speculations, and outright hoaxes can be found all over the Internet. One of them claims that one of the first woman in space, a Russian cosmonaut named Svetlana Savitskaya, had sex with one of her two male co-travelers back in 1982.

Another, written to look like it was a government document, purports that NASA did tests to try out different sexual positions using a variety of harnesses, grips, and Velcro. There was also speculation about the first married couple to go into space.

These and other sexual rumors were never supported by evidence and were denied across the board by the fellow crew members, the guys who watched the live cams, and the principals themselves.

Add the privacy issue as a formidable obstacle: Most missions consist of 5 to 7 people in a space that’s about the size of a school bus.

On the other hand, the answer might also depend on what you mean by sex. We’ve been talking about two-person sex here. Although nobody’s willing to talk about it much, masturbation has probably occurred.

In fact, according to Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, mission doctors advised them to engage in the practice as a way of preventing infections of the prostate gland.