February 10, 2026 at 9:56 PM
NASA Needs A New Vomit Comet
NASA is looking for new providers to supply low-gravity parabolic flights for spaceflight training and scientific research. The post NASA Needs A New Vomit Comet appeared first on The War Zone .
For NASA astronauts, experiencing zero-gravity conditions prior to mission launch is a necessary, if absurdly fun and enviable, part of training and familiarization. The ability to provide a microgravity environment here on Earth is also important for a number of scientific research reasons, and especially for spaceflight applications. For the better part of a century, access into this environment has been provided by specialized fixed-wing aircraft that fly parabolic arcs – collectively, and evocatively, dubbed “The Vomit Comet” for the physical side effect of weightlessness they tend to induce.
While a single private company has handled these zero-G flights for NASA for years, a new contract solicitation shows the agency is once again inviting competitors to bid for the work, with the possibility of providing new solutions for a decades-old requirement. What It Feels Like to Fly in NASA's Crazy Zero-Gravity Plane The solicitation, posted by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in support of the Flight Opportunities Program, seeks information from industry on a variety of capabilities to deliver reduced-gravity and microgravity environments, specifically for testing new technologies and conducting research. The document emphasizes that the method of achieving the effect of weightlessness can look different than it has in the past.