Toekomstige Dossiers:Lovers Will Marry in Space
Posted On: 12 July 2008 By: Jay Oatway Filed Under: Escape From Earth | Future-Stuff-That-Goes-Ping
Nothing like saying, “I do” while in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth — except maybe consummating the marriage in zero-G. If that sounds like your sort of romance, then you’ll want to check out the hottest future trend in nuptuals, The Space Wedding: [via Live Science]
The Japanese firm First Advantage and the U.S.-based private spaceflight firm Rocketplane Global, Inc., are apparently planning to host weddings in space for about $2.3 million (240 million yen), according to media reports and both firms’ Japanese Web sites.
Such a ceremony could include a space wedding photo album, marriage certificate, as well as the capability to broadcast the cosmic union live in some way, read First Advantage’s site. Apparently, the couple could take up to three guests – assumedly a priest and two witnesses – along for the near-space nuptials, reported Russia’s RIA Novosti, adding that the first flight could be in 2011.
According to the AFP, First Advantage spokesperson Taro Katsura said his firm expects the main customers for its space weddings to come from China or the Arab gulf region.
Of course, we need to wait until someone builds a space love motel of some sort before we can get any hot honeymoon action going — or maybe not. It’s possible that sex has already happened in space: [via Space.com]
For all we know, sex in space has already taken place. But NASA officials aren’t talking about that much.
Beyond space tourism as a platform for steamy shenanigans, space missions are the perfect petri dishes for close encounters, and this year NASA certainly has a busy flight schedule, with five missions planned.
And more countries than ever are now venturing into space, with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata slated to become Japan’s first long-duration space flyer this year and China gearing up for its first spacewalk scheduled for October.
Things will get even more interesting with future long-duration missions envisioned for the moon, Mars and beyond.
“To say that astronauts are some superior beings who cannot have interests in any kind of sexual feelings for three years … I just don’t buy it,” said Jason Kring of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. Kring also pointed out the possibly negative consequences of pregnancies in a microgravity environment.
The future is floating down the aisle
