The newly installed drop tower demonstrator in the Erasmus User Centre at ESA's research and technology centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, was used for the first time in a short inauguration ceremony on 29 October 2004. The tower stretches over the full height of the three-storey building, providing a thirteen metre vertical drop - just under 1.5 seconds of weightlessness.
The demonstrator is intended to promote the use of the full-sized drop tower facility at the ZARM scientific institute in Bremen, Germany.