--- title: "This Startup Wants to Send a Pregnant Woman to Space to Give Birth" description: "Startup SpaceLife Origin plans to send a pregnant women 250 miles above the Earth in 2024 so she can give birth in space." date: "2019-01-03" modified: "2019-01-03" authors: - name: "Kristin Houser" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin.md" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/give-birth-space-spacelife-origin" categories: - "Space" tags: - "Colonization" - "reproduction" - "spacelife origin" - "the digest" --- # This Startup Wants to Send a Pregnant Woman to Space to Give Birth ![The first off-world baby could be born as soon as 2024.]() *\Image: lunar caustic/NASA/Victor Tangermann\* ## Mother/Astronaut Childbirth is stressful enough for many women. But for one brave mother-to-be, it'll be even more so — because she'll be giving birth in space. At least, that's startup SpaceLife Origin's plan. In October, the Netherlands-based company [announced]() its Missions Program 2020-2024, a program culminating with the live birth of a human baby aboard a spacecraft positioned 250 miles above Earth — and according to one of the company's execs, the success of the mission could affect our plans for off-world colonization. ## Space Baby On Wednesday, *The Atlantic* published a [story]() about SpaceLife Origin. In it, Egbert Edelbroek, the company's Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, argues that humanity needs to figure out off-Earth reproduction if it ever hopes to colonize other worlds. "Human settlements outside of Earth would be pretty pointless without learning how to reproduce in space," Edelbroek told the magazine. Over the next five years, the company will complete a series of missions all designed to fill this knowledge gap and prepare humanity for off-world reproduction. According to a [press release](), these include a plan to send human reproduction cells to space as "[insurance]()" in case of a catastrophe on Earth and the development of a "Space-Embryo-Incubator" capable of fertilizing and developing embryos in space. The final step in the plan is sending a pregnant volunteer and a team of medical professionals into space on a 24- to 36-hour-long mission during which she'll give birth. ## Labor Pains As pointed out in the *Atlantic* piece, this plan sounds like a logistical nightmare — imagine doctors trying to administer an epidural in zero-gravity while blobs of bodily fluids float around the capsule. SpaceLife Origin is also likely to hit a host of regulatory hurdles and face serious ethical backlash by those concerned for the safety of the mother and child. Still, it's hard to argue Edelbroek's point that eventually we are going to need to figure out the logistics of [giving birth in space]() if we want to become an interplanetary species — and the process could start as soon 2024 with a single volunteer. **READ MORE:** [Imagine Giving Birth in Space]() \[*The Atlantic*\] ***More on off-world colonization: [Our Bodies Aren’t Built to Have Babies on Mars – so Let’s Alter Our DNA]()*** ### Author social links [LinkedIn]() ## More - [Startup Planning to Launch IVF and Embryo Incubator Into Space]() - [A Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth]() - [More Study Is Needed on Reproduction in Space If We Want to Colonize Mars]() - [China Plans to Send Monkeys to Space Station to Have Sex With Each Other]() - [Startup Working on Space Babies, But the Risks Are Grim]() - [Biologist: Babies Born in Space Might Not Be Fully Human]() - [This Ridiculous Startup Wants to Roast Coffee in Space]() - [Colonizing Space: Could We Reproduce in Zero Gravity?]()