Oakland based company is now offering zero gravity flights
Experiencing weightlessness was a feeling typically reserved for a select number of people traveling to space, but not anymore. Multiple people in Oakland experienced 0G's on Saturday.
A small group gathered inside an airplane hangar at the Oakland Airport for a safety briefing prior to boarding a plane that would allow them to experience zero gravity.
"When I was a kid and you read about that the training that they did, you’re kinda like oh I wish I could do that and never thought it was possible," said Jack Kang, a passenger.
Kang boarded a Zero G plane, a refitted 727 aircraft performs parabolic flights to simulate weightlessness.
The aircraft has only a few seats in the back while rest of the fuselage is covered with protective padding.
After climbing 32-thousand fleet, the aircraft began the weightlessness process. When it reaches a 45 degree curve, weightlessness begins. Passengers experience 20 seconds of microgravity.
"It’s magic… just like magic," said Stephanie Lyn, a passenger.
The Mountain View resident and her husband's original flight was canceled due to the pandemic.
"It was unreal when the plane starts to go down and you just start to lift off the ground," said her husband Ben McCann of the experience after the flight.
Passengers are guided by coaches throughout the flight. Some coaches have experience in the space industry. Coach Chris Boshuizen went to space last December with actor William Shanter on Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin launch into sub orbital space.
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"I had the seat right next to Shatner, and he begged me not to kick him in the head when we became weightless," said Boshuizen.
There were also aspiring astronauts training to be coaches on the Zero G flight.
The co-founder on Loft Orbital Solutions in San Francisco, Damien Vaujour, which delivers payloads to space, says becoming a coach keeps him in close proximity with the people of the space industry.
"I think part of the exciting of being around space in general for sure," Vaujour said.
Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts, was also on board Saturday's flight. Virts spent 200 days aboard the International Space Station.
"I’m weightless. It was completely like riding a bike," Virts said.
In addition to providing people with the cost of experiencing zero gravity, Zero G says it also trains astronauts and works with companies and institutions that want to perform experiments in weightless environments.