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How well does reduced-gravity flight
prepare you for what
it's like to be in space?
Al Drew: Well the short answer is it's
very useful.
Preparing for space we have a
number of
different things we can use. We
have the Neutral
Byouancy Laboratory, the pool,
that helps us, but it doesn't
necessarily give us that
free-flowing feel because the
water's viscous and
it resists our motion. We
also have Virtual
Reality Laboratories which give us
a good visual sense of what it's like
to be in space but
it doesn't give us that
same dynamic
kinematics of running around in
space. The
reduced-gravity flights give you all
that. You are weightless just like you'd
be in orbit for brief
periods of time so you can
get a sense of how
things can move around
freely and without those
other restrictions on them.