The sensation of zero gravity on the first parabolic flight in Portugal
The first parabolic flight made in Portugal, with 30 young people on board, took place on Friday successfully, from the Beja Air Base, where it landed at 12.02 pm, about two hours after take-off.
The flight was promoted by the Portuguese space agency Portugal Space, within the scope of the “Zeronaut for a Day” initiative, which aims to stimulate the interest of young people in space.
The space in which the young people follow, an Airbus A310, owned by the French company Novespace, which operates the flight over the Portuguese coast, in an area of leased air, performed ascent and free-fall maneuvers (parabolas) that allow simulating an absence of gravity in its interior for brief cycles, in which the passengers felt so alone that, without being able to control their interior, to do somersaults in the air.
Parabolic flights are practically the only means on Terraolic capable of reducing the space effect of gravity or gravity, which just doesn’t exist and only exists by astronauts.
The young people, students between 14 and 18 years old, were selected after qualifying tests and after landing they will receive a participation diploma.
On board the space plane that carried out the maneuvers for months Real, following the German astronaut Mattias Maur, who on May 6 returned from a mission of six, the first, from the international station, which he called “cosmic kiss”, for “love of space”.
The also flew, but also at heights, feeling the effect of gravity on Mars and the Moon too, like people who can’t even lift an arm, lying at height.
In all, the company’s Novespace plane performed 16 seconds of Martian gravity and 40 seconds of Martian gravity and 40 seconds of lunar gravity.
Dozens of family members of the young people are watching the take-off and landing of the Airbus A310 in a hangar at the air base near the runway.