Looking around Bruce Watson's classroom at Pepperell Middle School you quickly surmise that he has a fascination with space. Apollo program photos line the wall of his class along with the quote, “failure is not an option,” from the Apollo 13 mission. Mr. Watson was so enthralled by space that he applied for the Teacher in Space program.  He was not selected to go into space but he was recently able to experience one aspect of space -- zero gravity.

The Pepperell Middle School science teacher was one of 60 Georgia middle school teachers to experience zero gravity as part of participation in the Northrop Grumman Foundation Weightless Flights of Discovery program.  The Northrop Grumman program allowed Watson and the other teachers to experience science in low- and zero-gravity environments during a special flight on October 7.  The program seeks to allow teachers to bring what they experience from the program back to the classroom.

The zero-gravity flights are performed using a specially modified aircraft, an FAA-approved aircraft called G-Force One. The maneuvers are conducted in dedicated airspace 100 miles long by 10 miles wide. Specially trained pilots fly the aircraft in a series of maneuvers called parabolas, or arcs, between the altitudes of 24,000 and 32,000 feet.

At the beginning of each parabola, the aircraft climbs at a 45-degree angle. At the "top" of the parabola, the aircraft is "pushed over" into a controlled descent that creates a temporary zero-gravity environment. The flights include parabolas ranging from low-gravity environments typical of the moon, one-sixth of the Earth's gravity; or Mars, one-third of the earth's gravity; to complete weightlessness. At the end of each "weightless" period, the aircraft is gradually pulled out of the descent, reestablishing a more normal gravity environment inside the plane. 

“The experience was remarkable,” Watson said. “I found out first hand just how Newton's Laws really work. They made controlling movement very difficult and any slight push of the foot or touch of the hand on the wall would send me flying across the cabin of the plane.”  Watson took along a slinky to see what weightlessness would do to the actions of the toy.  “I found that it would only wiggle in zero-g, not go back and forth as we are used to in normal gravity,” Watson said.

Watson and the other teachers in the program were able to experience low- or zero-gravity 15 times, each time lasting 30 to 45 seconds. “I still dream about the floating around the plane,” Watson said.  “I have used the flight path of the Zero-G plane to explain parabolas to my students and to encourage them to go for what they dream.”