If humans attempt to push the boundaries of exploration, space-based procreation will be an essential part of keeping a crew alive for the lifetime of a mission to a distant star. However, scientists don't know how safe sex in space and childbirth may be.

 

NASA officials have long maintained that there has never been any hanky-panky between the space agency's astronauts on the International Space Station or during space shuttle missions, which ended in 2011.

 

In light of the nonprofit Inspiration Mars Foundation's recent plan to send a married couple on a 501-day manned mission around Mars in 2018, however, the first documented case of human sex in space might be on the horizon.