Parabolic flights

Parabolic flight campaigns consist in a series of 3 individual flights with around 30 parabolas flown during each flight. Near the top of the parabolic manoeuvres periods of up to 20 sec of weightlessness are experienced inside the airplane. Thus parabolic flight allows conducting experiments in weightlessness in a more cost efficient way than in actual spaceflight but with the limitation that a max of 20 sec of continuous weightlessness are generated at each time. This nevertheless allows performing investigations in the human physiology area and/or testing space-flight equipment designed for such experiments to be performed in the ISS. In addition parabolic flight experiments are more flexible, the lead-time is reduced and there is a continuously open Research Announcement.