Airbus A310 Air Zero G from French company Novespace
The German Space Agency at DLR offers various platforms that enable German researchers to conduct experiments in microgravity conditions. These include the DLR parabolic flight campaigns, which are carried out using a specially equipped aircraft – the Airbus A310 Air Zero G from the French company Novespace. To generate microgravity conditions, the Zero G flies a special manoeuvre known as a parabolic flight path. This path is similar to a conventional ballistic trajectory. The aircraft climbs steeply from level flight, then reduces engine thrust and – carried by residual momentum – continues upward until reaching the apex of the parabola and descending again. This results in true weightlessness for a period of approximately 22 seconds. Before and after the weightlessness phase – that is, during the pull-up and levelling out – hypergravity, an elevated gravitational force, prevails on board before the aircraft is brought back into horizontal flight.
Each parabola lasts approximately one minute. Researchers on board use the roughly 20 valuable seconds of weightlessness to conduct their experiments, which span a wide range of scientific disciplines including human physiology, biology, fundamental physics and materials science. The flights are also used to test equipment and structures that may later be deployed on other microgravity platforms or in space.
The Airbus A310 Air Zero G has been in service with Novespace since 2015, carrying out scientific flights on behalf of the German Space Agency at DLR and other European space agencies. At ILA 2026, visitors will have the opportunity to take a closer look at this remarkable aircraft, which is used as a flying microgravity laboratory.
Link:
German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR)
German Space Agency at DLR
Research and Exploration department
E-Mail Forschung-Exploration@dlr.de
