Weightlessness experiments are also performed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agencies using other kinds of airplanes. NASA Glenn Research Center, formerly called the Lewis Research Center, has operated a McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing DC-9 aircraft and a Learjet Model 25 for weightlessness research. The current Vomit Comet is the third in a series of airplanes used for microgravity experiments.Īlthough the KC-135A has earned the “Vomit Comet” nickname through a long history of usage, other aircraft are also used for similar experiments. Users of the KC-135A include astronauts training with experiment hardware prior to space shuttle missions, researchers conducting initial stages of experiments destined for space, and, since 1997, undergraduates and high school students who design and conduct experiments in reduced gravity. It also operates out of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, for several weeks each year to support the center’s microgravity research. The Vomit Comet is generally based at Ellington Field, near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Experimenters sit in the aft cabin during takeoffs and landings but move up into the padded area during the maneuvering parts of the flight. It has a 60-foot-long, 10-foot-wide, 7-foot-high padded cargo bay, equipped with electrical power outlets, compressed gas sources, an overboard vent system, and photo lights with power receptacles and attachment points at which to mount experiments. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) KC-135A Reduced Gravity Flight Laboratory is powered by four turbojet engines. About 550 of the 732 Stratotankers built remain in service. Air Force fleet in 1957, and the last was delivered in 1965. Built in Seattle, the first KC-135A entered the U.S. A predecessor of the Boeing 707 airliner, the KC-135 Stratotanker was originally designed for refueling military aircraft in flight. The nickname “Vomit Comet” stems from the fact that many experimenters feel motion sickness during the maneuvers required to go in and out of the zero-gravity environment. The KC-135A Reduced Gravity Flight Laboratory permits simulation of weightlessness for up to twenty-five seconds at a time, by flying through a controlled maneuver that simulates free fall and allows several types of experiments to be conducted in a simulated space environment. Significance: Occupants of spacecraft in orbit around Earth feel no gravitational pull, a condition known as weightlessness. Also known as: KC-135A Reduced Gravity Flight Laboratoryĭefinition: A Boeing KC-135 aircraft equipped to conduct experiments simulating the zero-gravity environment of spaceflight.
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