The Zero Gravity Corporation
has been given the thumbs up by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 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.
The kick-off flights will
carry "select consumers and guests," the company announced today.
The first flight was slated today to depart from Newark Airport in New Jersey,
across the Hudson River from Manhattan.
Trips available for everyone
else start in October.
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
about tickets and prices are available at the company's web site, www.nogravity.com.
advertisement
