Ground Control To Major Juan: Zero G Flights Are Coming To The Philippines
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to float around like an astronaut in space, but NASA didn’t accept your job application and your bank manager discreetly called security when you answered “Private Space Travel” to the question of what you needed a loan for? Worry no more! Thanks to a Swiss company, zero gravity flights are coming to the Philippines.
Ground Control To Major Juan: Zero G Flights Are Coming To The Philippines
Zero gravity creates a sense of weightlessness and is usually associated with astronauts and space travel, but the effect can also be achieved a lot closer to earth. To get that weightless feeling, a person can go on a parabolic flight where a specially modified airplane goes through a number of mid-air parabolas, or up-and-down manoeuvres, and the combination of these creates a feeling of weightlessness on board the plane that lasts for a few minutes and makes passengers feel like astronauts floating around inside a space station.
Normally, these flights are used to train actual astronauts, but a company called Swiss Space Systems (3S) is planning to make this unique experience accessible to mere mortals – as long as you have a big enough bank balance, of course.
While a whole lot cheaper than the 10 million pesos Richard Branson is said to be charging for a trip into space with his Virgin Galactic venture, the cheapest ticket for one of the two available Zero G flights in the Philippines next year still books in at an eye watering 120,000 pesos. This buys you a space in the “Party Zone”, where you will share the experience with 39 other passengers. For 300,000 pesos, you can buy a “Premium Zone” ticket, which is the weightless equivalent of business class and means you only have to share your floating space with 27 other passengers. Then there is also the VIP room, where up to 12 passengers can float around in high flying privacy, as long as they pay P3M for the pleasure. The exorbitant price tag includes a souvenir flight suit and Breitling watch, though, in case you have to justify this expenditure to your (probably very rich) self.
Flights in the Philippines are scheduled for February 21 and 22, 2015, meaning you have plenty of time left to save up for an out of this world experience. During the booking process on the Zero G website, the company informs passengers that a medical certificate is required which must state that you are physically fit enough to undergo what are deemed to be extreme flight manoeuvres. The total flight time is given as 90 minutes, with the total time in Zero G said to be roughly six minutes. This should give you plenty of time to capture some hard to top Facebook shots. Weightless Selfie, anyone?
Zero G
https://zerog.s-3.ch/
