Czech student is going to try a simulated state of weightlessness during a Zero-G flight
Prague, October 4th 2011 – Czech student Stanislav Fort will try astronauts’ feelings of weightlessness during his parabolic flight Zero-G onboard a specially designed Boeing airplane. The flight is taking place on the October 8th during the closing ceremony of the international student project “Youth Inspiration Program 2011” in Las Vegas.
An accompanying program for young space enthusiasts will take place during the annual celebrations of the World Space Week. Part of the event will also be a near 2 hours of Zero-G flight in the specially modified Boeing 727-200 airliner, which will fly on specially calculated parabolic trajectory and therefore enable its passengers to experience a feeling of weightlessness similar to experience of astronauts in space.
Anyone from more than 70 states, which organize events during the World Space Week, could propose a crew member for the parabolic flight. Finally, single candidate was selected by the organizing committee – eighteen year old Stanislav Fort from Drazice, near Tabor who was nominated by the Czech Space Office. Stanislav will symbolically act on behalf of all young space enthusiasts around the globe during his parabolic Zero-G flight.
“Standa was selected from open competition announced this April into the final ZERO-G crew. He succeeded because of his extraordinary talent for science and thanks to his language capabilities,“ says Milan Halousek, the head of Educational department at the Czech Space Office and adds: “I suppose, we will hear more news about this young man in future. This year he has become the absolute winner of the final international competition in Astronomy and astrophysics in Poland and has won the silver medal at the international Olympic Games in physics in Thailand.”
The Czech Space Office devotes its intense and long term support to the participation of Czech students in educational projects focused on astronautics and other related disciplines. This year CSO has supported in a financial and administrative way not only the journey of Stanislav Fort, but also other Czech students with regards to summer space schools, related competitions and conferences in the USA, Norway, Germany, South Africa, Austria and France.