General Information

Description

In 1998, NBC News correspondent Robert Hager joins college students for a zero-gravity ride on NASA's

"Vomit Comet" -- a plane used to prepare astronauts for weightlessness in space.

Keywords

Gravity, Zero Gravity, Weightlessness, Training, Astronauts, College Students, Decompression Chamber,

Pressure, Oxygen, Altitude, Hypergravity, Hypogravity, Free-Fall, Dive, Motion Sickness, Somersaults,

Experiment, Gyroscope, Balance, Steady, Orbit, Space, Motion, G-Force, Force, "Vomit Comet", NASA,

KC-135, Stratotanker, Houston, Mission Control, Gulf of Mexico, Physics

Citation

MLA

Aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet" -- Experiencing Zero Gravityhttps://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=40178

Source: NBC Today Show Resource Type: Video News ReportCreator: Matt Lauer/Robert Hager Copyright: NBCUniversal Media,

LLC.Event Date: 03/31/1998 Copyright Date: 1998Air/Publish Date: 03/31/1998 Clip Length 00:03:58

Page 1 of 3© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

"Aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet" -- Experiencing Zero Gravity." Robert Hager, correspondent. NBC

Today Show. NBCUniversal Media. 31 Mar. 1998. NBC Learn. Web. 24 March 2015

APA

Hager, R. (Reporter), & Lauer, M. (Anchor). 1998, March 31. Aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet" --

Experiencing Zero Gravity. [Television series episode]. NBC Today Show. Retrieved from

https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=40178

CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE

"Aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet" -- Experiencing Zero Gravity" NBC Today Show, New York, NY:

NBC Universal, 03/31/1998. Accessed Tue Mar 24 2015 from NBC Learn:

https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=40178

Transcript

Aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet" -- Experiencing Zero Gravity

MATT LAUER, co-host:

Before astronauts go into space, they experience zero gravity in a NASA training plane that is nicknamed,

I'm not making this up, the Vomit Comet. And, much to his credit, NBC's Robert Hager climbed on board

and took a shot at testing out weightlessness.

ROBERT HAGER reporting:

It's a KC-135. The space agency, NASA, uses it to train astronauts for weightlessness. Prepare them for

the day when they'll soar into orbit. But the KC-135 trainer has another name, the Vomit Comet. Tell you

why in a moment. It flies out of Houston, in the shadow of Mission Control. And recently, NASA has

started taking college students aboard to do experiments, and even an occasional reporter. That would be

me.

But first, look what we had to go through to get to this moment. A NASA class to learn how the body

reacts to weightlessness. Then more torture: a decompression chamber, make sure we'll be OK if our

plane loses pressure or oxygen.

Made step one!

Meantime, students I'm following from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Rebecca Hare, who's

wanted to be an astronaut since she was seven years old. Brandon Cangiano, Patrick Sween, and David

Swanson, their backup on the ground, all prepared their experiment, a pack astronauts might strap on in

space, with two gyroscopes to keep them upright and steady while afloat in weightlessness.

Now we're ready. Finally, our plane takes off. Out over the Gulf of Mexico, climbing to 34,000 feet. Until

suddenly, the pilots cut the engines, the plane arcs over, and inside, we become weightless.

What's happening now is that the plane is actually free-falling. And we are free-falling inside the plane.

Everything around us is free-falling. And so the effect is, in fact, weightlessness, just like all of the

pictures we have ever seen of the astronauts floating free.

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But after just 30 seconds, as the speed of the dive reaches 630 miles an hour, the plane levels out, and

weightlessness suddenly goes away.

Now, this is coming out of it, this is going from zero gravity into two G's, so that your body really feels

twice the weight of its nor--of what it would normally feel like.

Over and over, we repeat the cycle. Our students, meantime, launch their gyroscope-driven pack. It lunges

precariously around the cabin. And here's a touch of class that helps keep us all going, the cast of the

motion picture "Apollo 13" has been here before us. Tom Hanks and others filmed all the weightless

scenes right here, aboard the Vomit Comet. But back on our flight, the glamour's starting to wear thin

now, the gyro pack has broken a bearing.

Mr. PATRICK SWEEN: Well, we've had some problems. Looks like it was going OK for a while, but

then the hypogravity portion of the flight tore out some of our bearings.

Ms. REBECCA HARE: Well, it was much more difficult than we thought it was going to be. The bearing

broke, so our experiment is down.

HAGER: And the flight's beginning to take a toll in other ways. Now, about that name, the Vomit Comet.

Well, not for nothing it's called the Vomit Comet. We are all issued these neat little bags in case of motion

sickness, and about one out of every five people has to use them. So far, so good.

At last, after 40 climbs and dives, when our two-hour flight comes to an end and we debark, many are

clutching bags. For my part, I'm a little green around the gills, but can turn in the bag unused.

I made it.

And our would-be astronaut, Rebecca Hare, is ecstatic.

Ms. HARE: And you're, like, flailing around, you know, and you're doing somersaults and cartwheels, and

then all of a sudden, you land and you're sitting, and you're, like, totally nowhere you thought you were,

you know, and you're like, `How did I get here?' It's awesome, awesome.

HAGER: For a precious few moments, we've all had a glimmer of what astronauts experience in space.

They, in their modern spacecraft. We, in our Vomit Comet. But for all of us suddenly able to escape

gravity, float free in air, the magic is the same. For TODAY, Robert Hager, NBC News, over the Gulf of

Mexico.

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