Booking: Novespace Parabolic boeing flights

Before the parabolic manoeuvre, the aircraft flies horizontally, at an altitude of 20 000 ft. The crew prepare for the parabola by steadily increasing speed to about 810 km/h, the maximum authorized for this type of aircraft.

The pilot then pulls back steadily on the stick, and the aircraft ascends nose-up until it attains an attitude of 47°, at an altitude of about 25 000 ft . During this phase, referred to as the “entry phase”, a powerful sensation of weight, or hypergravity, is incurred, with the passengers weighing 1.8 times their weight on Earth.

Once the attitude angle of 47° has been reached, the flight engineer cuts back the engines significantly, and the pilot eases off on the stick. This moment is called the initiation, with the aircraft entering the parabolic phase, and consequently the weightlessness period.

At the start of the weightlessness phase, the aircraft continues to ascend until it reaches an altitude of 28 000 ft, then it starts to descend again, for 22 seconds, with the passengers floating freely in the cabin throughout the whole of this phase.

When the aircraft reaches a nose-down attitude of 42°, at an altitude of about 25 000 ft, the pilot again pulls back steadily on the stick so as to come out of the parabola, and regain the initial level of flight. During this phase, called the “exit phase”, there is once again a powerful sensation of apparent weight, or hypergravity, and passengers weight 1.8 times their weight on Earth. The aircraft then reverts to a horizontal position for about two minutes, before entering into the next parabola.

As well as the parabolas described here, it is also possible to carry out parabolas with a slightly different profile, which allows lunar gravity to be attained (0.16g) and Martian gravity (0.38g).


Flight programme

08.30: You arrive at the site, Novespace facilities for flights departing from Bordeaux Mérignac, Business Jet Terminal for flights departing from Le Bourget.

You will be welcomed by the Air Zero G team, who will provide you with your flight equipment (overalls, helmet, footwear).

You will then be placed in a group of 10 persons (which are given the evocative names of a planet: Saturn, Mars, Venus, etc.) and introduced to the two instructors for this group, who will be accompanying you throughout the flight.

9.15: Briefing. The staff will give a presentation about the arrangements of these parabolic flights (in French and in English), how they are carried out, and the various rules of procedure which are to be respected in order to avoid any unnecessary risk and to get the very best out of this extraordinary experience.

Jean-François Clervoy will do his best to realize this briefing personnally.

10.15: After a break, you visit the aircraft with your Zero G instructor.

10.45: A group photo is taken in front of the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, and you board the aircraft.

11.00: Takeoff. After the conventional safety demonstration on board, you will remain peacefully seated while the aircraft ascends to the parabolic procedure area.

12.00: The big moment has arrived. You and the other members of your group and the instructors go into the weightlessness experience area of the aircraft. For a whole hour the pilot will carry out a cycle of parabolas and rest periods.

After a Martian parabola (at 0.38g) and two lunar parabolas (0.16g), you will experience weightlessness, going through twelve Zero G parabolas in succession, under the supervision of your instructor.

13.00: End of the parabolas, and return to planet Earth. You take your seat again for the descent and landing.

13.30: Landing. You disembark from the Airbus A300.

14.00: You will share a meal with the whole Air Zero G crew.

14.45: Debriefing with all the participants and the test pilots who have been flying the aeroplane. An official Air Zero G Weightless Flyer  diploma will be issued to you

15:30: Jean-François Clervoy will share with you his space experience

16.30: End of a truly memorable day.

Piloting with precision a plane on a parabolic trajectory allows to create weightlessness aboard this plane.

An aircraft has been specially fitted out in this purpose by Novespace: the A300 ZERO-G of . It is used to drive experiments and trainings in weightlessness, for the scientific and spatial community.

The Zero G experience Zéro-G is a really magic time, during which you will float and will fly inside the vast cabin of the plane and you will taste the incredible sensations of freedom and plenitude of astronauts in the space.

Book a parabolic flight by Novespace

The “launch centre” for being “an astronaut for a day” is to be in Novespace’s facilities at Bordeaux-Mérignac airport, in France.

The Air Zero G flights are performed aboard an Airbus A300 belonging to Novespace, subsidiary of the CNES, the French space agency.

This plane has been specially fitted out for the parabolic flights. It is mainly used by space agencies (CNES, ESA, DLR) within the framework of their programs of scientific and technological research and for the training of the astronauts.