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Zero-Gravity Sports League In Development
Jonathan writes "A company that provides weightless flights to paying space tourists is developing a league around a sport that is designed for a zero-G environment." From the article: "The sport is called 'Paraball'...originally short for Parabolic Football," Persaud told SPACE.com. "The game really isn't like football anymore as the rules have developed, but the name has stuck," he added. [..] "The International Parabolic Sports League (IPSL) I plan to start with seven U.S. based teams, plus one Toronto-based team. Initially all League games would be played from the Las Vegas, Nevada airport, but we'll have 'home' games when the Zero-Gravity Corporation are able to bring their aircraft to that many cities over the time span of the league's season."
Cause thats all you got in a vomit comet...
-everphilski-
The flights are pretty darn safe. I am a flight coach for ZeroG and I can attest that our pilots and flight crew are some of the best. The flight crew are an excellent bunch of cargo aircraft pilots that have undergone extensive training for parabolic flight. Parabolas that can produce zero gravity in the cabin require a skill and talent that is hard to come by. We've got experts, and I'd argue that they are AT LEAST as good as the NASA folks. As for the aircraft, ZeroG has gone through years of proving to the FAA that they are safe to fly. All aircraft mods have been approved by a Supplemental Type Certificate, and we have been granted permission to fly under Part 121 of FAA regulations. Moreover, NASA has been flying these types of flights with the KC-135, a DC-9, and other aircraft in the past, and have flown without any major incidents. As for the folks in the back of the aircraft, the flight director, coaches and FAA certified Flight Attendant, we are all experienced parabolic flyers, and typically we also fly with an an astronaut. Personally, I have flown with NASA several times, and I can say that my goal is to be at least as good as the experts currently at Johnson Space Center. Point is, we've all got 'parabola legs' if you will, and I think we do a pretty darn good job taking care of our customers in the tourism, entertainment, and research sectors. Have any questions...Look me up and email me.
The article didn't have too much info on Zero-G's service, so I thought I'd chime in. Basically, Zero-G sells flights on their modified Boeing 727 at $3,750 each. Each flight has a total of 15 parabolas, which alternate between 1.8 g's and either zero g's, lunar g's, or martian g's; each of the low/zero gravity periods lasts 30 seconds.
John Carmack, of id Software fame, flew with Zero-G last year and wrote down some of his thoughts. He was pretty pleased with it, and got some ideas for his spaceflight company. He also recorded a video of messing around in zero-gravity. Here's an excerpt from his write-up:
The time went by so quickly that you completely forgot half the things you planned on trying. A couple of us were doing low gravity judo throws, and I took a shot at the worlds first flying armbar in zero gravity (didn't work out too well). Most of us that were doing fairly aggressive bouncing around landed on our heads at least once, so I have some concern that they will eventually have someone test the liability waiver. The bottom line is that I highly recommend the experience, and I am almost certainly going to do it again at some point.
Here's a link to some of the photos taken on board with some of our tourists: zero-g.smugmug.com
Here's a link to a recent local news video covering our very first flights from KSC: www.wesh.com/spacenews/5267185/detail.html
And, for those of you who watched American TV last night, you would have seen us on NBC's Three Wishes and if you're really a couch potato, you've seen us on The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, and The Rebel Millionare