Day 10: Flight day 1

Even though we flew to Corsica to avoid the bad weather over the Mediterranean the ride was still rather turbulent. Sometimes people even thought they were entering 0-g before the Captain had announced “pull-up”.

In general people handled the flight very well, with very few of them actually feeling sick. As for the experiments, the results were more mixed: while some of them produced few results others were really excited about the outcome of their experiments. As for the members of our team, no problems in either department.

The combination of an early day, a long flight, sickness medication and a hot and humid Bordeaux afternoon resulted in a sleepy afternoon at Novespace. Making repairs and backups becomes practically impossible.

The feeling of freedom during a parabolic flight is amazing. After yesterday, with the extremely useful orientation flight, when most people described the 0-g experience as feeling like being upside down you just get used to the parabolas, retaining most of the spatial orientation. The recovery from parabolic flight also seems much more subtle, not as abrupt as it felt yesterday.

Thirty-one straight parabolas is a lot for one flight, resulting in a mixture of excitement and fatigue. Now that I have done something so rare, which I probably will not have an opportunity to repeat in my lifetime, I feel glad I went to all that work and took the photos to make my friends jealous. This is truly the ultimate “Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt” experience!

Team 1052 – Detumbling a solar array deploying CubeSat

As this was the first flight day we all got up early and went to Novespace. We quickly installed the remaining hardware on the plane and Gusti and Flemming got on the plane taking off around 09:30.

After takeoff the two Martins went into Bordeaux for a little sightseeing. Nice city with lots of old churches and monuments to photograph.

The two “space cowboys” returned with good results and a big grin. They had both tried to free float and visited the cockpit, both of which are a great experience. Besides an enjoyable ride they managed to deployment nearly all deployables successfully - only one miss, which was attributed to a small burn wire problem.

After landing the team was reunited, and the errors were quickly found and corrected for tomorrow's flight. After debriefing, the work continued, reconstraining the deployables and recharging the batteries. Also as one of the deployables broke during the flight it had to be fixed.

Team 1009 – Colibri

Today, our second flight, the first test of our freeflyer in weightlessness, the moment when we’ll have a first look at four months of work... We are impatient! At last, we will see our Colibri robot fly and will enjoy 31 more parabolas, because yesterday’s familiarisation flight was far too short for us!

Last verifications with the checklists, load the program, pull up, 30, 40, injection and that’s it, we start the tests.

To release the freeflyer without sending it spinning is a bit tricky when you’re only restrained by strap, but we learn quickly. When everybody isn’t stuck on the roof the parabola is a good one and the behavior of the freeflyer is as expected. Only disappointment, the thrust could be stronger, but this will be fixed for tomorrow.

A few tests and a little fun later and it’s already over. Too bad! Who knows, perhaps we’ll be able to fly again later in our lives? For the moment the second flight is drawing nearer and there are some improvements to do. Let us hope that tomorrow’s results will be even more interesting.

Team 1040 – AstroSpace

This is the first flight day and everybody is so excited. We have waited for this since being selected to take part. We have overcome all kinds of difficulties and we hope that everything will be as great as we imagined.

We got up very early to be at Novespace as soon as possible, to get ready (the scopolamine needs about one hour to take effect). After the medication, the flying team members and the journalists and the crew boarded the plane, while the others started the ground control experiments or took a moment to relax.

When the Airbus landed, we were all very excited: those who had flown had so much to tell and who had remained on the ground had so many questions, that after lunch, we were still discussing the free fall sensation.

My friend was a bit scared earlier this morning because she knew she had to fly alone: two of us are not fit for the flight and she was afraid she would feel sick. However, any fear disappeared after the first parabola and she enjoyed the experience a lot.

During the weightless phases, a lot of people were floating around her; their satisfaction and the need to concentrate on the experiment allowed her to forget the initial sickness. Some people from ESA even helped her with the procedure.

According to her, the flight is exactly as she expected: the feeling of freedom during the parabolas, the strange weight of the body during the pull up and so on.

Now we are very anxious to get our results and we hope that everything went as we planned. This afternoon was very important for us because it is our last possibility to change the experiment: a great opportunity to improve the procedure learning from any problems during the first flight, just as the real scientists do!

I think this experience has taught us so much - we will never forget these days.