NASA’s Defying Gravity Program for Undergraduates

MAY 01, 2014

Sesha Srinivasan, Assistant Professor of Physics

The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, managed by the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, TX, provides a unique academic experience. Undergraduate students in the program can successfully propose, design, fabricate, fly, and evaluate a reduced-gravity experiment of their choice over the course of four to six months. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on experimental design, test operations, and educational/public outreach activities. The students’ microgravity aircraft flies 30 parabolic maneuvers to produce periods of altered gravity ranging from weightlessness to two times the force of Earth’s gravity.

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