Lose Weight … And Maybe Lunch

The man best known for organizing the private space race is making weightlessness available to anyone with $3,000 and, we hope (as will their fellow passengers) a strong stomach. Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X Prize competition, is behind the Zero Gravity Corporation, which just got FAA approval to sell tickets on NASA-style parabolic flight profiles (aboard a 727-200) that give customers a brief period of weightlessness and a rather unique view. The FAA signed off on the flights on Tuesday and tickets are on sale for flights that will be conducted on a two-week tour that will visit New York, Los Angeles, Reno, Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit and Florida. Passengers spend a full day in a program led by a former astronaut and then board a modified Boeing 727-200, which flies a roller-coaster flight profile between 22,000 and 32,000 feet. We hope the modifications include easy clean interiors because even the most experienced pilots training for the space program lost their lunches in the NASA flights. They nicknamed the KC-135 they used the Vomit Comet.