OFF: Love in Space

[K Henderson]

        HOUSTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A decade-old old Internet hoax about
NASA "space sex experiments" has again popped up to excite and confuse
the public, space experts have learned.
        In response, NASA officials have severely criticized those in
the news media who presented the material without adequate verification.
        The media's attention was revived this week by publicity
swirling about the release of a book by French astronomer Pierre Kohler
called, "The Final Mission," to be published in Paris on Thursday. In
advance publicity, Kohler described the contents of an allegedly secret
NASA report about experiments involving different sexual positions in the
zero-gravity conditions of weightlessness.
        The press reports say the book, a chronology of Russia's Mir
space station published by Calmann-Levy in Paris, describes a "Document
12-571-3570" detailing 10 different male-female positions which were
actually tested on space shuttle mission STS-75. The shuttle mission was
launched in early 1996. Most of the positions involved physical restraint
systems to keep the couples close together.
        Neither the publisher nor the author, a prolific author of
popular books on astronomy, space, and UFOs, could be reached for
comment.
        NASA officials have branded the document and its contents a
hoax. "There is no truth to it at all," declared Johnson Space Center
spokesman Eileen Hawley in Houston. She told UPI she had first seen the
bogus report five years ago, and on some Internet sites it is identified
as having been posted from the University of Iowa in 1989.
        Brian Welch, NASA's 'Director of Media Services', was more
vehement. "We categorically deny there is any such document," he told
UPI. "This is a fairly well-known 'urban legend'", he continued, and
expressed dismay that anyone could still be taken in by it without
checking it out.
        And in an exclusive interview with UPI, Dr. Rhea Seddon, one
of America's first women astronauts, called the reports "ludicrous". She
continued, "In my opinion, the story is pure fabrication."
        Allegations of sexual activity in space have circulated for
almost as long as there have been mixed crews on manned spacecraft. Among
space flight experts, it is commonly believed that such private activity
has actually occurred.
        In August 1982, Russian cosmonaut and aerobatics pilot
Svetlana Savitskaya spent a week aboard the Salyut-7 space station in
the company of four male cosmonauts. "They greeted me at the hatch with
an apron," she later recalled, and then tersely described how she
rebuffed that attitude and established a professional working
relationship with them.
        Less than a year later, America's first woman in space, Sally
Ride, shared a space shuttle cabin with four men for a week.
        Since then, more than thirty women have taken part in space
shuttle missions as regular crewmembers. One Russian and one American
woman have conducted months-long tours on the Mir space station.
        In September 1992, two married astronauts flew aboard STS-47,
a "Spacelab" science mission. Mark Lee and Jan Davis got married after
being assigned to the crew. They were divorced several years later.
        Although spacecraft are commonly thought to be crowded and
lacking in privacy, shuttle missions with Spacelab modules do provide
extra room as well as private space in small bunks with sliding doors. In
addition, manned space vehicles tend to be very noisy, with loud fans and
other mechanical equipment providing a background din.
        Consequently, experts who spoke privately with UPI do not
consider it implausible that men and women in space have on occasion
engaged in traditional off-hours paired recreational activities. "I'd be
astonished if it hasn't happened," one told UPI, "and it's nobody else's
business."
        But these same space medical experts said it was easy to
recognize the Internet report of an official experiment as a hoax. There
is no such NASA program looking at psychological aspects of long-duration
space flight. And they agreed with Welch's assertion that the alleged
document's identification number wasn't even consistent with NASA
standards.
        Houston space center official Eileen Hawley also pointed out
that the cited shuttle mission, STS-75, had carried seven men and no
women.
        Seddon, an medical doctor who made three shuttle missions
between 1985 and 1993, was a specialist in space medical experiments and
now serves on one of NASA's advisory councils for life science research.
"I have never heard of any experiments that even vaguely resemble those
mentioned in the article," she told UPI.
        She found the entire idea of sexual space experiments
implausible: "I cannot imagine that the many review panels that must
approve research on the Shuttle would ever let this go forward, that any
crew members would sign up for it or that any Shuttle Commander would
allow it to be a part of his or her flight," she went on.
        Seddon concluded: "All astronauts are serious, professional
people who work very hard to make sure the time they are given in space
is used in the most efficient and responsible way."
        Welch expressed similar exasperation at the news stories.
"What is frustrating about this is that these news agencies didn't bother
to call NASA to check on the story," he told UPI. "NASA has officially
asked Agence France Presse for a retraction of its story," he added.
        "There's no reason that American taxpayers should have to
watch their civil servants having to bat down these silly rumors," he
concluded.

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