"As the Stomach Turns" on the KC-135 Can you imagine going to
your school or office and floating in air along with your desks,
chairs and pencils? Well that's what the astronauts experience
when they take a flight on the KC-135 aircraft, affectionately
known as the "Vomit Astronauts get a unique perspective of their
environment during a zero gravity flight. Medical studies and
motion sickness experiments are also researched on these
flights. The NASA Reduced Gravity Program began in 1959 and the
KC-135 was the perfect aircraft. The Boeing four-engine turbojet
Stratotanker was originally designed for in-flight aircraft
refueling and later as a 707 for commercial flights. Further
modified to meet NASA's needs, the KC-135 is used to understand
the role of gravity on humans and hardware in space. During a
typical mission of 2 to 3 hours the aircraft will fly 30 to 40
parabolic arcs. During each parabolic arc there are 20 to 25
seconds of "g" gravity when the astronauts will experience how
it feels to be in outer