EDWARDS, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA has selected nine space technologies under the agency’s 2021 TechFlights solicitation for testing aboard parabolic aircraft, high-altitude balloons, and suborbital rocket-powered systems.
(more…)
12 ambassadors selected to participate in weightless parabolic flight on October 17
Ambassadors with mobility, vision, and hearing disabilities will test the design for accessibility in zero-gravity and high gravity environments
LONG BEACH, Calif., October 5, 2021 (AstroAccess PR) – AstroAcccess, a mission dedicated to advancing disability inclusion in space exploration, today unveils a crew of 12 ambassadors selected to participate in a parabolic flight with the Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) on 17 October 2021.
(more…)
by Nicole Quenelle
NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center
Rocket off course? It could be a slosh problem.
Propellant slosh, to be exact. The motion of propellant inside a rocket-based launch vehicle or spacecraft tank is an ever-present, vexing problem for spaceflight. Not only can it make gauging the amount of available propellant difficult, but the volatile waves of liquid can literally throw a rocket off its trajectory.
(more…)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Faculty members in Purdue University’s schools of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Mechanical Engineering are among a list of 28 researchers whose technologies have been selected to receive funding under NASA’s Tech Flights solicitation.
Steven Collicott , professor of aeronautics and astronautics, will receive four separate grants totaling $1.8 million for four different experiments. Issam Mudawar, the Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering, will receive one grant in the amount of $649,851.
(more…)
ORLANDO, Fla. – December 18, 2017– Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G®), the only FAA-approved weightless flight provider in the U.S, provided a microgravity test lab for collegiate research teams, most of which were funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. Students from seven colleges collected crucial data from their individual technologies in the microgravity environment made possible by the parabolic flight pattern of ZERO-G’s specially modified Boeing 727, G-FORCE ONE.
ORLANDO, Fla, April 6, 2017 (Zero-G PR) – As part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G®) recently worked with research groups from University of Florida, Carthage College and University of Maryland to validate technology designed to further humanity’s reach into space. A collection of flights on G-FORCE ONE, ZERO-G’s specially modified Boeing 727, gave researchers the chance to run experiments and test innovative systems in the only FAA-approved, manned microgravity lab on Earth.
A review by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conduct a review of its regulations for space support vehicles used to train space tourists and conduct reduced gravity experiments.
“The Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOT) should direct the FAA Administrator to fully examine and document whether the FAA’s current regulatory framework is appropriate for space support vehicles and, if not, suggest legislative or regulatory changes, or both, as applicable,” the report states.
EDWARDS, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program has selected eight space technology payloads for reduced gravity flights on board specialized aircraft and commercial suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs). These flights provide a valuable platform to mature cutting-edge technologies, validating feasibility and reducing technical risks and costs before infusion into future space missions.
Five of the newly selected proposals requested parabolic flights, which involve a flight maneuver that uses a dramatic half-minute drop of the aircraft though the sky to simulate weightlessness. Two proposed projects will fly on sRLVs for testing during longer periods of weightlessness. An additional payload will fly on both platforms.
Kate Upton
Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA
Credit: James Macari
It looks like Zero Gravity Corporation is back flying after a gap of about a year and a half. The company had a legal dispute with the owners of the engines on its Boeing-727 aircraft. It also needed re-certification of its plane by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The company put out a press release this week celebrating its 10th anniversary and announced a 20 percent discount in its ticket price. It is reproduced below.
Kate Upton
Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. (Credit: James Macari)
Video startup Virool has significant reworked its contest in the wake of the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in October.
Instead of offering a trip to space, Virool will send a marketing team on a trip aboard Zero-Gravity Corporation’s parabolic aircraft.
“For one full day, you and your entire video marketing team will experience weightlessness on the same aircraft that NASA uses. Between 24,000 and 35,000 feet above the ground, you’ll float, flip, soar and even EAT as if you were in outer space,” the company says on its website.
Ad Week reports the company will hold onto its Virgin Galactic ticket for use when the company begins commercial flights.
For information about the contest, click here.
Kate Upton
Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. (Credit: James Macari)
The X Prize Foundation has suddenly dropped parabolic microgravity flights aboard Zero-G Corporation’s G-FORCE ONE aircraft from the itinerary of its $40,000 per person Ansari X Prize 10th anniversary trip.
Instead of floating around in zero g next Friday, participants will be sitting around listening to presentations from the “top Google Lunar X Prize teams.”
EDWARDS, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program has selected 13 space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, and a commercial parabolic aircraft. These flights provide cutting-edge technologies with a valuable platform to conduct tests, before they enter use in the harsh environment of space.
Arlington, Virginia, November 27, 2013 (ZERO-G PR) -– Zero Gravity Corporation® (ZERO-G®) has successfully completed the latest ZERO-G® Weightless Lab microgravity research flight. On November 17, ZERO-G clients tested equipment for future suborbital missions, studied the geology of Mars, deployed cubesats, evaluated fluid dynamics and analyzed customized devices for consuming liquids in space.
“ZERO-G’s research program gives universities, corporations, government and individuals seeking to conduct serious investigations unprecedented access to microgravity,” stated Terese Brewster, President and COO of ZERO-G. “Now in our fourth year, ZERO’s Weightless Lab continues to provide an international clientele with Martian, Lunar, zero and hyper-gravity environments for the study of terrestrial and space applications.”
An announcement from Space Florida:
This weekend, Zero-G conducted a research flight from Titusville Airport, featuring 6 local, national and international research teams partially supported through the Space Florida Suborbital Flight Incentive Research Program.
The Space Florida Sub-Orbital Flight Incentive Program will provide a partial reimbursement for customers to fly research payloads from Florida, equal to one-third of the published list price of an approved flight provider, up to a maximum of $10,000. Space Florida will provide this incentive in order to increase the volume of commercial and academic research payloads that fly from Florida. All flight research considered for the program should have either a terrestrial or space application. The program period commenced on January 12, 2012 and is set to continue until December 31, 2013.
Find more information about our program here: https://www.spaceflorida.gov/sub-orbital-flight-incentive-program
