If you’ve fantasized about floating in space but lack the skills and training to make the astronaut life a reality, you still have an opportunity to achieve weightlessness – and you won’t have to exit the earth’s atmosphere to do it.

A clear plastic container filled with colorful objects, floating in the foreground in front of a Zero G researcher
Zero-G's 2020 tour schedule has been released © Zero Gravity Corporation

The first and only company in the US approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for weightless flights, Zero Gravity Corporation has been facilitating free-floating experiences since 2004, and its 2020 tour will be no exception. Making stops in 12 cities from coast to coast, Zero-G’s upcoming season will kick off in Atlanta on 21 March and wrap on 21 November in Miami, with 30 stops in between. 

Here’s how it works. After a pre-flight check-in and a brief orientation, flyers proceed through security and board a modified Boeing 727 for the flight to the airspace, a designated area measuring some 100 miles-long and ten miles-wide, and once the plane has reached an altitude of 24,000 feet, even with the horizon, the fun begins. 

Brad Altman, Rod Roddenberry and George Takei Fly ZERO-G
Brad and George Takei achieved zero gravity with Rod Roddenberry, son of

The pilot performs an aerobatic manoeuvre called a parabola, pulling up the nose of the jet at an increased angle until it reaches 32,000 feet at a 45-degree angle, then pushes it over the peak – a trackless roller coaster, of sorts. And for the next 20 to 30 seconds, weightlessness is achieved. The plane levels off briefly, then repeats the manoeuvre. (There’s also a parabola for lunar gravity, at one-sixth your body weight, and Martian gravity, at one-third, courtesy of a larger arc over the top of the parabola.)

Martha Stewart floating in zero gravity
Martha Stewart is one of many celebrities who have achieved lift-off with Zero-G © Zero Gravity Corporation

Of course, such adventures don’t come cheap. The experience starts at US$5400, which includes 15 parabolic manoeuvres, meals before and after the flight, and professional photos and video of you floating around the cabin, and runs up to US$165,000 for a private flights accommodating up to 34 people. 

For more information, visit gozerog.com

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