Astro Access carries 12 disabled volunteers to a zero-gravity flight 32,000 ft above Earth

Astro Access, an organization that aims to advance disability inclusion in space exploration, conducted a zero-gravity flight 32,000ft above Earth carrying 12 disability ambassadors. The crew members, comprising of scientists, engineers and artists flew on October 18 aboard a Boeing 727 'G-Force One' plane offered by collaborator Zero Gravity Corporation, reported Daily Mail. Backed by several disability and space organisations, the ambassadors kickstarted a campaign in what could be the beginning of a space era including disabled astronauts. 

Laying out a tweet about the flight, Astro Acess wrote, "Today we make history as our 12 #DisabilityAmbassadors take to the skies aboard@GoZeroG. Representation matters and today is our first #BigLeap towards making space accessible."

Purpose of the flight

As per the organisations involved, the flight was conducted from Long Beach, California, in a bid to understand how spacesuits and space vessels could be made more user-friendly and accessible to disabled people. In this particular endeavour, people with several kinds of disabilities including mobility, vision and hearing disabilities participated to experience weightlessness. A report by Daily Mail suggested that the volunteers underwent gravity at different strengths namely lunar gravity, Martian gravity and zero gravity.

While twisting and turning in different phases of gravity, the volunteers also underwent several tests such as assessing the physical environment, using multi-sensory methods to communicate safety procedures and data collection from weightlessness experiments. According to Daily Mail, Astro Access is also aiming at increasing participation of the disabled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), along with higher participation in space-related activities. 

To ensure that Astro Access' aims are achieved, many disability and space organisations have offered their support including the DAV (Disabled American Veterans), the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Space Frontier Foundation, the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Washington-based Gallaudet University.

Execution of the flight 

The 12 members were able to experience weightlessness as the plane flew in a parabolic arc to reach 32,000 feet and thus create short periods of weightlessness, as per Daily Mail. Since the weightlessness lasted only 20-30 seconds and there were several experiments to be conducted, the planes were made to undergo the same path 15 times. Aircrafts, primarily zero-gravity ones, flying in parabolic manoeuvres and creating a weightless environment are also called 'vomit comets'.

Image: Twitter/@AstroAccess