Weightless Over Cleveland

Northrop Grumman’s Weightless Teacher Flights Touch Down in Cleveland

“For more than 40 distinguished elementary and secondary school teachers from the Cleveland area and six Midwestern states who participated in Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Weightless Flights of Discovery program this weekend, the concept of “floating” new ideas past their students will never be the same.”

Editor’s note: I had a chance to ride along on one of these flights on Saturday – just as Atlantis was leaving Earth. We beat them into microgravity by a few minutes! In a nutshell, the experience is utterly amazing – and Zero Gravity Corp. provides a marvelous experience. I will have a report online in the next day or so. Also, look for reports on MSNBC, in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and on Cleveland’s Channel 3 (tonight).

This is the flight path we took.

Editor’s note: In this clip – which covers one entire period of zero G exposure, former MSFC Center Director (and now Northrop Grumman VP) Art Stephenson teaches MSNBC’s Alan Boyle how to catch an M&M. Alternating with zero G are 1.8G periods when you are advised to lie flat, not move your head, and look at a point on the ceiling. The woman who can be heard shouting instructions (suggestions) is Sophia Kim, our excellent coach from Northrop Grumman. Shortly after I shot Art feeding Alan someone bumped me and I went into a spin and managed to get to the deck just as 1.8 G reappeared. I managed to point my video camera at myself for a few seconds before it was time to hit the deck again on a later loop.