Scientific flight campaigns
Every year, Novespace organizes five to six scientific research flights in microgravity, as well as special missions. Find out more about what happens before, during and after a flight campaign for scientific experiments.
Standard campaigns and special missions
Standard parabolic flight campaigns for scientific investigations organized by Novespace consist of three flights of 31 parabolas over three days.
Up to forty or so researchers may perform some fifteen on board experiments on this type of mission.
Novespace is also able to organize specific missions with one or more users who select the number of flights and experiments, and the length and type of each flight.
These flights may depart from Bordeaux or any other airport.
Five to six scientific flights campaigns a year
Novespace usually organizes five to six scientific flight campaigns every year, with up to 18 parabolic flights annually.
These campaigns are conducted in rotation for space agencies, Novespace’s main clients:
However, Novespace may group, on the same standard mission, several users sharing the aircraft’s resources and the costs of the mission. The ESA, CNES and DLR may take part in the same campaign, for example.
The campaigns are mainly organized from Bordeaux-Mérignac airport, with some flying from Dübendorf military airbase in Switzerland.
Scientific campaigns since 1988
Novespace conducted its first scientific parabolic flights from 1988 to 1995 with the Caravelle Zero G. The Airbus A300 Zero G was then brought into operation from 1997 to 2013, and replaced in 2015 by the Airbus A310 Zero G.
At the end of 2017, Novespace had conducted 133 campaigns.
Campaign phases
A flight campaign lasts two weeks. Several months before the flights, the various selected scientific experiment development phases are supervised by Novespace’s engineers, in line with the parabolic flight’s technical and security requirements.
During the first week, which is a preparation week, the experiments are transferred to Novespace by the teams of scientists. They are then subjected to a series of checks before being authorized for boarding. Once inside the aircraft (at least four days before the first flight), the experiments are tested to ensure they do not malfunction during transport.
The flights take place in the second week.
They start on Monday with a mandatory briefing for everyone taking part in the flight:
- Principle behind the parabolic flight
- Procedures to follow
- Schedule and safety guidelines
Each team presents its experiment.
Three flights are then operated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with takeoff at 9.15 am and landing around 12.30 pm (Friday is the standby flight day in case of delay due to technical or meteorological reasons).
Each flight consists of one preparation parabola, then six series of five parabolas interspersed with breaks during which researchers may adjust the parameters of their experiments.
In total over the three-day period, 93 parabolas are flown for a zero-gravity period of more than 30 minutes. Each flight is followed by a debriefing. Scientists may then work on board the aircraft in the afternoon to adjust their experiments.
A general campaign debriefing is made after the final flight The experiments are then removed and transported by teams back to their respective laboratories.
Throughout the campaign, the research teams may stay in one of the many hotels in the vicinity of Bordeaux-Mérignac airport, less than five kilometers from Novespace’s facilities.
Number and nature of on board scientific experiments
Each campaign consists of ten to fifteen on board scientific experiments.
Most are conducted over the course of three flights. Others, such as educational experiments developed by high school students, may be conducted on a single flight during a campaign, and then replaced by a different experiment on the following flight.
Some scientific experiments can be spread over several campaigns, and sometimes several years. This enables researchers to develop their experiments and collect a larger body of data. These experiments cover a wide field of scientific disciplines, ranging from human physiology to space technology, fundamental physics, materials science, biology and so on.