[Joel J]

Originally Posted by dlavery

You don't know how right you are...

<OHHH-GAH! Warning! Impending Grossness Alert!>
I have flown on the KC-135 five times (so far). It is not nicknamed the "Vomit Comet" for nothing. My first two flights were on the morning and afternoon of the same day. The first flight went perfectly - we took off from Ellington Air Field with 18 people aboard, flew 20 minutes out over the Gulf Of Mexico, and started to pull the parabolas. 20 parabolas in a row while heading east, then a four-minute turn around, and 20 more heading back west. Then a short flight back to Ellington and touch-down. Got a little queasy around parabola 15, but nothing too severe. I had made sure to follow the payload chief's advice, and had a very light breakfast (two frosted cherry Pop-Tarts and some water).

Since we all did so well, the flight crew took us to Pee-Tee's for lunch (Houston locals will know what is coming next...) for red beans and rice and bar-b-que, all sopped up with slices of Wonder Bread and butter. Then back on the plane for the afternoon flight.

Take off and then 20 minutes out over the Gulf. I made it all the way to parabola number 6 before the lunch time bar-b-que decided to say "hello!" again. Just as we were crossing over from the 2-G pull-up to 0-G at the top of the parabola, I lost it. As lunch emerged, I was fascinated by the little round globs of bar-b-que and beans and Coke that all hung together suspended in front of me. I stared at them in amazement as they formed perfect spheres just floating in the air. Two of the globs bumped together hard enough to break the surface tension, and merge into one larger sphere of "pre-digested luncheon material." A few little ones exhibited significant forward velocity, and I lost visual track of them as they disappeared down the length of the cargo bay. But they big ones stayed right next to me, as if they knew I wanted to study them carefully.

Which I did. I concentrated on them with such ferocity that I forgot the 0-G portion of the parabola is only 27 seconds long, and is immediately followed by a 27-second period of 2-G. Which meant that I was completely unprepared when the congealing large globules suddenly accelerated back towards me at 64 ft/sec/sec.

The movie "Alien" taught us that in space no one can hear you scream. But I can certify that in space you can still hear the sound of "splut! Splut! Splutsplutsplut!" when it hits you....

-dave

I'm still laughing.. inside. lol.