Vomit Comet Back on Earth
Johnson Space Center used to use this KC-135 to give micro gravity training to astronauts. Dimly visible on the nose is an illustration of the flight path, where the plane would dive to pick up speed, then pull up and over in a parabolic arc, which would provide up to almost a minute of free fall for anyone inside the plane. A typical training flight would last for several hours and involve a large number of such maneuvers. Anyone who managed to get through the first one or two without losing his or her lunch usually had a pretty hard time holding it down for the whole flight. So, they called it the Vomit Comet.
Vomit Comet Back on Earth
Johnson Space Center used to use this KC-135 to give micro gravity training to astronauts. Dimly visible on the nose is an illustration of the flight path, where the plane would dive to pick up speed, then pull up and over in a parabolic arc, which would provide up to almost a minute of free fall for anyone inside the plane. A typical training flight would last for several hours and involve a large number of such maneuvers. Anyone who managed to get through the first one or two without losing his or her lunch usually had a pretty hard time holding it down for the whole flight. So, they called it the Vomit Comet.