49th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign

ESA's 49th Parabolic Flight Campaign took to the skies recently with three flights over the Bay of Biscay. A suite of 14 microgravity experiments flew on board the specially adapted Airbus A300 'Zero-G' aircraft.

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HI-RES JPEG

Caption:

A first ascent and descent provides a 'warm-up' parabola before the experiments get underway

Credits:

ESA - A. Le Floc'h

ID number:

SEMLYD4DHNF

HI-RES JPEG size:

1100 kb

Description

The 'Zero-G' aircraft takes off from Bordeaux-Mérignac airport and heads out over the Bay of Biscay. There a first 'warm-up' parabola is performed before the experiments get underway. Over the next three hours, the aircraft and its occupants experience 30 parabolas. Each parabola lasts about one minute, of which the microgravity phase lasts some 20 seconds. Before and after this brief experience of weightlessness, the experimenters experience up to 2 g (twice normal gravity) during the steep climb and around 1.8 g during the descent.

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