The type of work performed by these aircraft is greatly varied, but includes refueling tests with new aircraft types, airborne laser trials, weightlessness training for astronauts, and numerous programs involving the testing of airborne equipment and space technology. This aircraft, designated NASA 930, is operated by the Johnson Space Center's Reduced Gravity Office in Houston, Texas. Regardless of the name, this unusual aircraft helped the Planetary Missions and Materials Branch at the Johnson Space Center take another step closer to renewed human exploration of the moon, and beyond. The objective of the physiological training is to familiarize personnel who are exposed to a lowered barometric pressure with the physiological stresses encountered and how to successfully overcome these stresses. Most flights are dedicated to zero-g astronaut training and equipment tests.
Longer flights are possible, depending on fuel and gross weight limitations.
Consequently, more parabolas mean more flexing of the airframe and more stress. Ron Howard, his crew, and the cast spent over six months on the plane to produce the movie. Winglets are small, nearly vertical fins installed on an airplane's wingtips to help produce a forward thrust in the vortices that typically swirl off the end of the wing, thereby reducing drag. This winglet idea was tested at Dryden on a modified KC-135A tanker loaned to NASA by the Air Force. The first application of NASA's winglet technology in industry was in general aviation business jets, but winglets are now being incorporated into most new commercial and military transport jets, including the C-17 Globemaster III military transport.