HOUSTON,I HAVE A PROBLEM

摘要

Barfing is optional, and passing gas encouraged. Welcome to space school. Day One: Orientation It's 7 a.m. in Houston, and I'm watching a video of a grown man getting sucked into a jet engine. He survived, but I'm not sure I will: Soon I'll board an aircraft that makes 30 percent of its passengers throw up. This is the first day of a NASA university program that climaxes aboard the Vomit Comet, a modified KC-135A airplane that performs "parabolas"—a series of ascents and descents—to simulate weightlessness. For a nervous flyer like me, this raises many questions: How can a 38-year-old aircraft take the stress of 8,000-foot dives and 8,000-foot recoveries? And, Why in the world am I doing this?