16 - 27 October 2000 - A lucky group of European students had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience weightlessness in an initiative from ESA. Students were invited to submit proposals for conducting experiments under this condition - and were selected on that basis.
They got to conduct their experiment as they went up in a special plane that created the same conditions as in space.
Over the fortnight from 16 to 27 October 2001 the ESA parabolic flight campaign gave some 30 international student teams of researchers (approximately 120 students in all) the chance to experience near-zero gravity (weightlessness). A specially adapted Airbus A-300 took off from Bordeaux-M?rignac airport in France to carry out experiments in weightlessness and test instruments and equipment prior to spaceflight.
In parabolic flight, the aircraft is put into a specially-shaped trajectory that provides free-fall, or weightlessness. This weightless experience, other than the duration, is exactly that experienced by

00:00 Timecode In
00:48 GVs Parabolic flight passengers
04:21 Graphics of plane following parabolic flight path
04:42 GVs Airbus parabolic flight plane
06:54 Archive footage of parabolic flights
08:54 Experimentation in orbit
10:02 Interview Wubbo Ockels, ESA (English)
12:35 Interview Wubbo Ockels, ESA (French)
14:25 Interview Wubbo Ockels, ESA (German)
16:22 Interview Wubbo Ockels, ESA (Dutch)
17:34 Timecode Out