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Sex in space. Or not

Did astonauts have sex in space? And why are people interested in this subject now?

Now here's a funny story. Very nearly eight years ago, in February 2000, when I was the Guardian's correspondent in Paris, I wrote a mildly humorous news item for the foreign pages about a fairly well-known French science, space and astronomy writer called Pierre Kohler who claimed, in a book that had been published that week, that both US and Russian astronauts had enjoyed "cosmic couplings" during separate doubtless important research programmes into how humans might survive several years in orbit.

According to Kohler's book, the article said, there existed a confidential Nasa report, to which he had gained access, on a space shuttle mission in 1996 during which a project codenamed STS-XX was to explore precisely which sexual positions were possible in a weightless atmosphere; two guinea pigs had reportedly tested the 10 positions deemed most suitable for a spot of the old zero-gravity how's-your-father. The report, again according to Kohler's book, concluded that only four positions were in fact possible in space without "mechanical assistance" (the missionary position was not one of them). It added, tantalisingly, that a videotape, albeit censored, existed of the experiment.

It was a very short story, instantly forgettable, and I duly forgot about it.

Then four days ago, a person called Laurbails submitted a story to Digg the website that ranks news items according to how popular they are with users. This story met with instant approval among the Digg community, attracting 350-plus mainly amused and ribald comments and receiving, thus far, 2,362 "diggs" and counting. Amazingly, the link behind the Digg headline (Which sex positions are possible in zero gravity? Nasa knows...) led to a mildly humourous news story about a fairly well-known French science, space and astronomy writer called Pierre Kohler who claimed, in a book published in February 2000, that both US and Russian astronauts had enjoyed "cosmic couplings" during separate research programmes into how humans might survive years in orbit.

This had the effect, on Tuesday, of propelling an almost eight-year-old story -- clearly marked as such -- to the top of Guardian Unlimited's most-read list, where it still sits, along with the thoroughly actual and indeed constantly developing and genuinely interesting item about the mystery canoe man and his wife, and has thus far been viewed over 112,000 times. A great many other websites have also picked it up, as if it had been published yesterday; some billing it (and I quote) as absolutely "the hottest news on the blogosphere".

One or two Digg commenters, however, well versed in the ways of the internet and presumably with time on their hands, dug (as it were) around a bit and came up with some interesting information. Such as the fact that more or less as soon as Kohler made them, Nasa had rebutted his claims and denied the existence of any such zero-gravity sex project. The whole thing was a hoax, a spokesman said, based on a fake document that had been circulating on the internet for yonks. Also, it seems Mr Kohler, who was, in France in early 2000, probably rather less familiar with the internet than was Nasa, had mounted a spirited, if not entirely convincing, defence of his conclusions, saying they were not just based on any old bit of tat someone had found on the web and sent to him but that he had a proper human source.

But it was all too late. The story had taken off, gaining a new lease of life all of its own, and prompting no less an authority than Wired -- which did at least notice the date at the top of the piece -- to comment on it, reproducing (if you'll pardon the expression) a denial from the Russians.

All in all, it now looks pretty much indisputable, eight years on and despite his many protestations to the contrary, that Kohler (and by extension, me, and, by further extension, all those who have read and giggled at this story -- written, I hasten to say, by a person in an office in a country which at the time barely knew what the internet was, let alone having reliable access to it or knowing how to use it) have all fallen victim to a particularly fine hoax. The admirable mythbusting Snopes and Urbanlegends websites certainly reckon so, and to prove it supply the fake Nasa document on which the relevant chapter in Kohler's book is based.

Anyway. It all goes to show, I suppose, that you just can't believe everything you read on the internet. I certainly don't.

(If, however, you don't give a damn about all that and are only reading this because you are fascinated by the idea of sex in space, I warmly recommend a full and, er, penetrating analysis of the whole question in a recent edition of on Slate.)