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Floating in weightlessness – on Earth

6 May 2005

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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.

Credits: ESA

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The ZARM drop tower in Bremen, Germany. An external ESA facility since September 2003, the 146-metre ZARM drop tower provides 4.74 seconds of weightlessness – a figure which will be doubled from the beginning of December 2004 using a catapult system at the base of the shaft.

Credits: ZARM/FAB - Drop Tower Operation/Service Company mbH/University of Bremen

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Credits: Euronews

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Credits: Euronews

Inauguration of drop tower demonstrator ZARM Drop Tower becomes ESA External Facility