HOUSTON -- A group of entrepreneurs, including former NASA officials, claims to be only a few months away from offering commercial airplane flights that mimic NASAs famous Vomit Comet, allowing passengers to experience weightlessness without the expensive rocket ride.

Zero Gravity Corp. (Zero-G) has received U.S. government approval to operate the aircraft and plans to begin flights in the first quarter of 2003, said Peter Diamandis, Zero-Gs chairman and chief executive officer.

Diamandis began his quest to commercialize zero-gravity airplane flights in the mid-1990s, but only recently did the company overcome its biggest challenge to date, obtaining some of the necessary licenses from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate the aircraft, he said.

The company has completed test flights for the FAA and received FAA certification for a special modification of a Boeing 727-200 for parabolic flights, Diamandis said.

Zero-G was advised by the FAA that the company can conduct commercial parabolic flights within the United States under Part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations and also has been granted a Supplemental Type Certificate, which recognizes that Zero-Gs aircraft can safely perform the maneuvers to achieve weightlessness, Diamandis said.

An official with the FAA said Zero-G does not have all the licenses needed to conduct the flights.

Diamandis said Oct.10 that the company still needs to select an operator that has FAA approval to operate under Part 121. Once the operator is selected by Zero-G, the operator will have to go through the final approval and coordination process with the relevant local FAA Flight Standards District Office before conducting flights.

To provide passengers the experience of weightlessness, an aircraft climbs at a 45 degree angle and then dives at about the same angle, creating a zero gravity environment for about 25 to 30 seconds. The maneuver, called parabolic flight, is repeated from 20 to 60 times during a single flight.

Zero-G, based in Santa Monica, Calif., plans to lease multiple Boeing 727 jet aircraft to provide the zero gravity experience to customers, Diamandis said. The aircraft will be configured to carry up to 30 clients and have space for operations such as science experiments, movie sets or just an area to float in, he said. Zero-G will have different platforms to fit inside the aircraft based on client needs, and some clients may even own their own platforms or pallets to go inside the aircraft.

The company is targeting multiple markets beyond adventurers who want to experience zero gravity, Diamandis said. Other potential customers include research and science flights, corporate incentive programs, and the entertainment industry, which already has provided Zero-G with its first payday, he said.

Zero-G leased a 727 for the flight testing needed to obtain the FAA certification, Diamandis said.

During the series of six flights in January 2000, a studio used the aircraft to film scenes for an upcoming movie. The service was similar to what NASA provided to the producers of the movie Apollo 13, who filmed scenes with actors experiencing weightlessness while flying in NASAs KC-135 aircraft, known inside and outside the agency as the Vomit Comet.

Zero-G will sell flights directly to the entertainment industry, corporations and researchers, Diamandis said. For  the tourist market, the company plans to sell whole flights to retailers who then will resell the individual rides. He would not disclose what Zero-G plans to charge any of its potential customers. Most of the funding for the project is coming from private investors, Diamandis said.

Bryan Emerson, president of Starlight Capital Inc. and Wired Capital Inc., a pair of Houston-based investment equity firms, helped introduce Diamandis to several potential investors. The Houston market provided a good source of investors for Zero-G, mostly from individuals looking to diversify their holdings outside of the petroleum and real estate areas, Emerson said.
I would say there has been strong interest among individual investors, Emerson said. I am very bullish on the Zero-G opportunity.

The next step for Zero-G is signing a partnership agreement with a cargo carrier operation, Diamandis said. A partner will help defray aircraft costs by using the 727 to ferry cargo at night and leaving time for zero gravity flights during the day and on weekends, he said.

Such an arrangement will allow Zero-G to operate its business without having to own the aircraft and cut the cost per flight, Diamandis said.

Because we are using cargo operators, we already are flying thousands of flights per year, he said.

By cutting the cost of aircraft ownership, Zero-G hopes to be profitable within its first year of operation, Diamandis said.

Zero-G hopes to sign a partnership by the end of the year, which will leave enough time to modify aircraft for parabolic flight and be in business before the end of the 2002 first quarter, he said.

Flights will be operated out of several U.S. cities, as Zero-G plans tomove a fleet of two to four aircraft around the country, Diamandis said. The firm has coordinated airspace with the FAA in locations throughout the United States, over the oceans, the Great Lakes and deserts to perform the flights, he said.

While Zero-G will have no commercial competitors operating in the United States, similar flights are offered by Novespace of Paris, a commercial subsidiary of the French space agency, CNES, using an Airbus A300. In addition, Arlington, Va.-based Space Adventures, sells rides in Russia on an Ilyushin 76 at a cost of $5,400 per person, according to the companys World Wide Web site.

The start-up of Zero-G may cut into our business a little, said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Space Adventures, but he hopes the addition of another competitor will create more interest in the market.

While NASA also provides research flights on its KC-135, Zero-G hopes to offer a complementary or supplementary resource to NASA, in that market, Diamandis said. If corporations or universities are having a difficult time getting onto NASAs aircraft, they may be able to use us as an alternative.