Zero G' s for the Public

Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
SPACE.com

The Zero Gravity Corporation has been given the thumbs up by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct " weightless flights" for the general public, providing the sensation of floating in space.

Tickets are on sale for around $3,000.

A specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, called G-Force One, will be used during a nationwide tour Sept. 14-24.

" We kick off a two-week tour with Zero-G flights in New York City, Los Angeles, Reno, Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit and Florida," Peter Diamandis, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the company, told SPACE.com.

Diamandis said in a press statement that his firm has teamed up with Diet Rite " to provide Americans with the first opportunity to experience the fun and exhilarating feeling of weightlessness, an experience previously available only to astronauts."

The Zero-G Experience offers a full-day program led by a veteran astronaut. Each flyer -- the customer -- experiences Martian gravity (1/3 Earth' s gravity, referred to as " g" ), lunar gravity (1/6 g) and zero gravity, the sensation of floating freely with no pull from terra firma.

The sensation of weightlessness is created inside G-Force One by flying a parabolic flight pattern, specifically a 10,000-foot " roller coaster" , which takes place at between 22,000 and 32,000 feet altitude above Earth.

The parabolic flight patterns temporarily counteract Earth' s gravity, creating weightlessness for several seconds on each of several passes.

The experience is " exhilarating and disconcerting," according to a reporter who rode a similar NASA plane known as the Vomit Comet.

Diamandis began his quest to commercialize zero-gravity airplane flights in the mid-1990s and, in 2000, provided zero-g flights for the film industry. The Zero Gravity Corporation is headquartered in Dania Beach, Florida. Its flight operations are conducted out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

More details and information on cost are available at the company' s web site, www.nogravity.com.

How cool to go on one of those flights...I always have had a dream to go to space, but this would be way cool, too!!!

Awesome story, Mass X.

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