Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program

Sponsored by NASA's Johnson Space Center, the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program provides a unique academic experience for undergraduate students to successfully propose, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate a reduced-gravity experiment of their choice over the course of six months. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on experimental design, test operations and educational/public outreach activities.  Since 1959, the Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Reduced Gravity Flight Opportunities Program has provided a true three-dimensional "weightless" test and training environment for countless numbers of researchers. Originally the province of astronauts, and used primarily in support of NASA missions, the Boeing KC-135A has recently been used to provided other researchers (NASA, government, academic and commercial) with a venue for fabricating and testing reduced-gravity experiments. Continuing to expand its customer base, the Reduced Gravity Flight Program at JSC offers the NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Program a unique avenue to engage student-investigators in hands-on research.