Thread by @PulpLibrarian

Time once again for our occasional series Forgotten Pulp Genres. Today I'm looking at... sexy space pulp!

It wasn't long after man first went into orbit that people* began asking the obvious question: how do you have sex in space?

(*particularly the French)

Well, near-earth orbit nookie is a difficult thing apparently. It's hard enough getting a Soyuz to dock with the ISS, let alone anything else...

Pulp was quick to be across the space race in the 1960s: big rockets blasting off into the unknown was a gift for pulp writers, though even they found it tricky to shoehorn sex into rocket science.

Why sexy space pulp? I think it's because of the spacesuits: all fetish material etc. Plus those big rockets. It's exciting stuff...

And it wasn't long before pulp writers considered the bigger questions of the universe, such as how to make out with Martians. Personally I blame Captain Kirk!

However not every astronaut was simply after a bunk-up. Some simply longed for the love of a good woman...

Britain was late to the space race, but has recently announced it will build a spaceport in #Scotland. Prepare for a blast-off from the Trossachs region in 2025, weather permitting!

Alas interest in outer space Tinder-type hook-ups began to fade after 1972, another casualty of NASA's cancellation of the Apollo programme.

And whilst the space shuttle helped us launch satellites and run experiments in microgravity, it's not really as sexy as a Saturn V.

Will sexy space pulp ever return as a genre? We can only pin our hopes on the Space Ship X programme. That X has to stand for something.

More forgotten genres another time...