NY Couple Gets Hitched in Zero Gravity

Two New Yorkers got hitched in zero gravity Saturday in the first publicized weightless wedding.

Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan said "I do" June 20 while floating in microgravity in an airplane converted for commercial weightless flights.

The vows took place in front of close family and friends aboard a modified Boeing 727-200 plane owned by the Zero Gravity Corp. The plane - which is filled with padded walls and floors for safety, and video cameras to record the experience -  took off from NASA?s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It made steep dives while airborne to give the bridal party eight full minutes of weightlessness spread out in increments of about 30 seconds each.

The couple paid $5,400 per person for themselves and 10 guests to take the ride. The ceremony was officiated by space tourist Richard Garriott, the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew to the International Space Station last year in a $30 million deal brokered by the company Space Adventures.

"I am honored to be taking part in Erin and Noah?s wedding," Garriott said. "I know firsthand the added thrill microgravity will play in their already joyous event. The excitement from these ?first ever microgravity nuptials? will not soon fade in the minds of all the members of the wedding party."

Saturday?s weightless nuptials were not the first space-themed wedding. In 2003, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko got married from orbit while flying aboard the International Space Station.

But only Malenchenko was floating in weightlessness during the ceremony, which he participated in via video. His bride, Ekaterina, was at NASA?s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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