page_title: Weightlessness
section_title: Commercial flights for public passengers
hierarchical_section_title: Weightlessness / Weightless and reduced weight environments / Reduced weight in aircraft / Commercial flights for public passengers
caption_attribution_description: English: Peter Diamandis in ZERO-G
context_page_description: Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. This is also termed zero-G, although the more correct term is "zero G-force". It occurs in the absence of any contact forces upon objects including the human body.
  Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational field. These weight-sensations originate from contact with supporting floors, seats, beds, scales, and the like. A sensation of weight is also produced, even when the gravitational field is zero, when contact forces act upon and overcome a body's inertia by mechanical, non-gravitational forces- such as in a centrifuge, a rotating space station, or within an accelerating vehicle.
  When the gravitational field is non-uniform, a body in free fall experiences tidal effects and is not stress-free. Near a black hole, such tidal effects can be very strong. In the case of the Earth, the effects are minor, especially on objects of relatively small dimensions and the overall sensation of weightlessness in these cases is preserved. This condition is known as microgravity, and it prevails in orbiting spacecraft.
context_section_description: Novespace created Air Zero G in 2012 to share the experience of weightlessness to 40 public passengers per flight, using the same A310 ZERO-G than for scientific experiences. These flights are sold by Avico, are mainly operated from Bordeaux-Merignac, France, and intend to promote European space research, allowing public passengers to feel weightlessness. Jean-François Clervoy, Chairman of Novespace and ESA astronaut, flies with Air Zero G one-day-astronauts on board A310 Zero-G. After the flight, he explains the quest of space and talks about the 3 space travels he did along his career. The aircraft has also been used for cinema purposes, with Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis for the Mummy in 2017.
  The Zero Gravity Corporation, founded in 1993 by Peter Diamandis, Byron Lichtenberg, and Ray Cronise, operates a modified Boeing 727 which flies parabolic arcs to create 25–30 seconds of weightlessness. Flights may be purchased for both tourism and research purposes.
caption: Inside Zero Gravity Corporation's airplane
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