The winners of a region-wide contest for teachers were announced here Tuesday in hopes that teachers in zero-gravity can help to inspire today’s youth to reach for the stars like the generation that put a man on the moon.
“It was just so cool. You just push off a little bit and you go flying so I kind of bashed my head into the lights during the first zero-G phase. I did a lot of the flips and back flips.” - Frank Trice, Zero-G Customer.
“Incredible. Exactly the same feeling we had on the moon mission. It is something you will never forget for the rest of your life, and I encourage everybody to share the sensation.” - Buzz Aldrin
"Direction doesn’t matter when you’re weightless. Up and down are no longer markers. I suddenly understood how in space there is only everywhere." - Sean Wilsey, Author of "Oh the Glory of It All."
ZERO-G replicates the same levels of weightlessness enjoyed on Mars (1/3-gravity), the moon (1/6-gravity), and zero gravity. It's an experience unlike any other.
"It was really an incredible experience being weightless ... kind of a euphoric feeling, really!" - Erin Finnegan, First Bride ever to be Married in Zero Gravity.
"I've waited my whole life for this ... what I remember most was the feeling of weightlessness, both physically and emotionally," - Noah Fulmor, First Groom ever to be Married in Zero Gravity.
The Williamsburg residents will be joined June 20 by a handful of friends in a plane owned by the Zero Gravity's Corporation's - the only federally approved provider of commercial weightless flights.
The Northrop Grumman Foundation is accepting teacher applications for the 2009 Weightless Flights of Discovery program, an initiative that places teachers on micro- and zero-gravity flights to test Newton's Laws of Motion and energize students in the formative middle-school years.
"It was amazing and exhilarating. Not many people can say they've experienced lunar gravity, and I'm now one of the lucky few. The feeling was bizarre – your body rotates based on gravity and once zero-gravity hit, the direction of gravity reverses. I would do it all again in a heart beat!" -Steven Koh, 'Blast Off with Norton' Competition Winner
During their flight, the teachers had the opportunity to experience simulations of Mars' gravity, the Earth's gravity, the moon's gravity, zero gravity and nearly two times the Earth's gravity.
"I'm so excited to take part in this flight! I can't even imagine what weightlessness feels like, yet in a few days I'll be floating in the air like an astronaut." -Steven Koh, Winner of the "Blast Off With Norton" Competition.
"I spent plenty of time trying to prepare for what it was, but until you experience it -- to have your feet lift off and you're floating -- it's an absolutely amazing feeling." - Frank Lock, Lemon Bay High Science Teacher.
The teachers will fly aboard the "G-FORCE-ONE," a modified Boeing 727-200 owned by the Zero Gravity Corp. The company provides programs for both private customers and educators.
Erik Viirre, M.D., Ph.D., a University of California, San Diego School of Medicine physician who specializes in diseases of the inner ear, recently completed his fifth weightless flight with Zero Gravity Corporation. Aboard the same plane were four paraplegic children who left their wheelchairs on earth as they floated free in a zero-gravity environment.
A local Dover student born with spina-bifida, which has left her paralyzed from the waist down, got to take a zero gravity flight and be featured on Nickelodeon.
Since its maiden flight in October 2004, Zero-G has flown more than 5,000 passengers, including computer executive Charles Simonyi (who later became the fifth "tourist" to go to the International Space Station) and British physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The Challenger Center for Space Science Education is pleased to learn of Garriott's upcoming flight and applauds his personal commitment to focusing upon science and education throughout his mission.
