Vladimir Pletser

PARABOLIC FLIGHTS

Aircraft Parabolic Flight Campaigns for reduced gravity experiments

Aircraft parabolic flights are a useful tool for performing short-duration scientific and technological experiments in reduced gravity, for the verification tests that can be conducted before space experiments in order to improve their quality and success rate, and after a space mission to confirm or invalidate results obtained from space experiments. An aircraft in parabolic flight provides investigators with a laboratory for scientific experimentation where the gravity levels are changed repetitively, giving successive periods of approximately 20 s of microgravity preceded and followed by periods of approximately 20 s of about 1.8 g's.

In his position of ESA Parabolic Flight Coordinator, Pletser organized and led 65 ESA campaigns for more than 1000 experiments in physical and life sciences and technology. He participated in 25 other campaigns of NASA, the 'Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales' (CNES, French Space Agency), the 'Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt' (DLR, German Aerospace Center) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Having logged 7398 parabolas, he is known as ‘Mister Parabolic Flights’, 'Mister Parabolas' (in French ‘Monsieur Paraboles’), ‘Homo Parabolicus' or ‘Mister Microgravity’ (in French 'Monsieur Microgravité'; in Dutch 'Paraboolveteraan').

1. NASA's KC-135/930 in Houston (1985-1988)

From 1985 to 1988, working with the first Belgian Astronaut Dirk Frimout, he organized four ESA campaigns aboard the KC-135/930 aircraft of the Reduced Gravity Office of the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), at the Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.

Between 1985 and 1988, he developed a microgravity suspension system for payload confining in parabolic flights for the experiment ‘Surface Forces Adhesion’ of Prof. G. Poletti (Univ. Milan, Italy) and tested it several times on ESA campaigns on NASA’s KC-135. This experiment flew later on the free-flying European Retrievable Carrier (Eureca) platform launched in 1992 on STS-46 and retrieved in 1993 on STS-57.

Between 1986 and 1994, he participated in the development and in-flight tests of several micro-accelerometer systems using CSEM and Q-Flex sensors and in a compact micro-accelerometer system. In 1988, he was also heavily involved in the development and tests of combustion facilities for seven European combustion experiments for the first microgravity combustion campaign conducted on the NASA KC-135 aircraft, the first combustion experiments flown on a NASA carrier after the Shuttle Challenger accident in 1985.

The KC-135/930 during pull-up over the Gulf of Mexico (Photo: NASA)

Astronauts W. Ockels, D. Frimout and V. Pletser experimenting aboard the KC-135 in 1987 (Photo: NASA)

V. Pletser in front of the Caravelle in Brétigny (Photo: ESA)

2. CNES Caravelle in Brétigny (1989-1995)

In 1989, ESA decided to use the CNES Caravelle aircraft for parabolic flights in Europe. He organized and flew on the first Caravelle campaign and, from 1989 to 1995, on 13 other ESA campaigns at the 'Centre d'Essais en Vol' (French Test Flight Centre) in Brétigny, Paris, France, as Campaign Lead and experiment supervisor, taking part in several experiments as either operator or as subject for biomedical research experiments.

3. Russian CTC Ilyushin Il-76 MDK in Berlin (1994)

In July 1994, the Caravelle being unavailable, he organized and flew on the 19th ESA campaign aboard the Ilyushin IL-76 MDK of the Russian Yu. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (CTC) in Berlin, Germany, to prepare for the Euromir-94 mission.

Astronaut J.F. Clervoy and V. Pletser performing a test with an ISS rack mockup on the Caravelle (Photo: ESA)

The Ilyushin IL-76 MDK at the Berlin airport (Photo: ESA)

Floating in the Ilyushin in 1994 to test the ergonomics of the Munich Space Chair prior to a Mir space station experiment (Photo ESA)

4. CNES-ESA Airbus A300 ZERO-G in Bordeaux (1997-2014)

The Caravelle flight certification having expired in July 1995, ESA used from 1997 till 2014 the CNES-ESA Airbus A-300 ZERO-G, the largest aircraft in the world for microgravity research during parabolic flights, managed by a CNES spinoff. From 1997 to end 2014, he organized and led 38 ESA campaigns for microgravity science research with the Airbus A-300 (see reports for the 27th (p.5), 28th (p.134), 29th, 30th, 31st (in French 31ème), 33th (p. 8), 34th (in French 34ème, in Dutch 34ste), 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th (in French 38ème, in Dutch 38ste), 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 51st, 52nd ESA campaigns).

In 2010, he initiated with CNES and DLR a new series of parabolic flight campaigns for scientific experiments at partial g, at Moon and Mars g-levels. These are achieved by flying slightly longer parabolas recreating the gravity levels existing on the Moon (0.16 g) and on Mars (0.38 g). Two Joint European Partial-g Parabolic Flight (JEPPF) campaigns took place successfully in June 2011 and December 2012 with respectively 13 and 14 experiments.

In October 2014, he was invited to join the last parabolic flight of the A300 ZERO-G aircraft during the 25th DLR campaign in Bordeaux. Although still in excellent technical condition, the Airbus A300 ZERO-G was retired by the end of 2014, to serve as a static exhibit at the Airport of Koln, Germany.

5. CNES-ESA-DLR Airbus A310 ZERO-G in Bordeaux (2015-2016)

After several years of discussions and evaluations, the choice of the replacement aircraft fell on an Airbus A310 aircraft previously used by the German Government for official travels of the German Chancellor. He was invited to fly as expert for parabolic flight validation of the new Airbus A310 ZERO-G aircraft in early 2015.

He co-organised with his CNES and DLR colleagues the first joint cooperative microgravity campaign with the A310 ZERO-G. He further organised and lead the first two ESA campaigns on the A310 ZERO-G, the 62nd and the 63rd ESA campaigns. He was further invited as expert for the 28th DLR campaign in February 2016 and the 64th ESA campaign in April 2016.

The Airbus A300 ZERO-G during pull-up

Floating upside down aboard the Airbus A300 ZERO-G in 2001 (Photo: ESA)

Subject of an experiment of Prof. J.L. Thonnard in the Airbus A300 (Photo: ESA)

6. Flight Instructor for public Discovery Parabolic Flights

In 2013, it was decided to open the parabolic flight experience to the general public. He was detached from ESA as Instructor for the public 0g Discovery flights. He participated in two training flights in 2013 and in five public Discovery Flights with the Airbus A300 ZERO-G and, from 2015 onward, in six public Discovery Flights on Airbus A310 ZERO-G organized from Bordeaux and in one Discovery Flight organized by the University of Zurich from Dubendorf, Switzerland in 2015.

7. Participation in other parabolic flight campaigns

He was invited several times to take part in other campaigns. In February 1992, he flew on a DLR campaign with the NASA KC-135/930 in Houston to train German Payload Specialists astronauts in AFPM operations to prepare for the Spacelab D2 mission.

In July 1993, he participated in parabolic flights organized by Prof. J.C. Legros of the University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium, aboard a Belgian Royal Air Force Fouga Magister to measure microgravity levels during flights.

In May 1994, he participated in demonstration parabolic flights with the Russian Ilyushin IL-76 MDK, organised in Berlin, Germany.

In October 1995, he was invited by NASA to fly on board the DC-9/30 aircraft of the NASA Lewis Research Centre, Cleveland, USA, to support a preparatory BDPU experiment for the Spacelab LMS mission.

In November and December 1999, he was invited to participate in CNES and DLR campaigns with the Airbus A-300 ZERO-G to support experiments as human subject with the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System (ARMS) that flew later on on the ill-fated STS-107 mission in January 2003.

In 2001, he organised and led two parabolic flights on board the Cessna Citation 2 of the 'Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium' (NLR, Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory) for a medical experiment of Prof. M. Hinsenkamp (Univ. Brussels ULB, Belgium) that could not be flown on the Airbus A-300 ZERO-G.

In 2004, he was invited to fly on the Austrian Short Skyvan aircraft to evaluate the possibility of using it for public relation purposes.

In 2011, the Canadian Space Agency invited him to participate in a series of parabolic flights on board the Falcon 20 in Canada to support a combustion experiment of the McGill University in preparation of an ESA Sounding Rocket flight.

In front of the Fouga Magister before take-off in 1993

Prof. Hinsenkamp and V. Pletser in the Cessna Citation II in 2001 (Photo: ESA)

The DC-9/30 during pull-up (Photo: NASA)

In the Short Skyvan

In free-float aboard the DC-9/30

In front of the Falcon20

In 2016, he participated as Visiting Professor in the Space Studies Programme (SSP-16) of the International Space University (ISU) taking place at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. He took part in a series of parabolic flights organised by ISU’s Space Sciences Department, flying 21 parabolas on board a Grob G103a Twin II glider from the airfield of Megiddo (better known under its ancient Greek name of Armageddon). These flights were the first scientific parabolic flights in the Middle East.

In September 2018, he co-organised with researchers of the Dept of Mechanics, of the Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain, of the Catholic University of Louvain, (see here, here and here) a series of parabolic flights with an ASK21 Glider at the Saint-Hubert Aerodrome, in Belgium, in order to qualify this new microgravity platform to perform student experiments. These flights are now made available to the public by the LIDE company.

V. Pletser rehearsing an experiment before take of in the Grob G103a in Megiddo, Israel.

From left, D.G. Caprace, Prof. P. Chatelain, P. Billuart (Dept of Mechanics, EPL, UCLouvain), V. Pletser, N. Frischauf (ESA-CERN) in front of the ASK21 in Saint-Hubert, Belgium.

V. Pletser before take-off in the ASK21 glider in Saint-Hubert, Belgium.

In April 2023, he organised with the LIDE company in collaboration with UCLouvain and the Centre National de Vol à Voile a series of parabolic flights with an ASK21 Glider at the Saint-Hubert Aerodrome, for three experiments.

The main experiment 'Tumors in Space' of Dr Tricia Larose from the University of Oslo, Norway, and for which Dr Pletser is a co-Investigator, studied cancerous organoids in space to see if the absence of gravity can slow or stop the growth of cancer, in preparation of a future experiment to be performed on board the Chinese Tiangong Space Station in 2025.

Two other preliminary experiments by UCLouvain researchers were also conducted during these flights. The first experiment, by Dr Julie Manon of UCLouvain, studied the fracture pattern in zero gravity. The second experiment by Dr. Nassiba Menghoum and Prof. A.C. Pouleur, both from UCLouvain, and Dr. Pierre-Francois Migeotte from HeartKinetics, Belgium, consisted of measuring cardiac signals as a function of gravity levels with the HeartKinetics Kino system.

In June 2025, he was invited to deliver a lecture at the Medical and Gliding Congress of the French Association of Velivole Health Professionals (Association des Professionnels de Santé Vélivoles, APSV). At this occasion, he flew 9 parabolas with a simple experiment on gravity-dependent optical illusion.

8. ESA Student campaigns

From 1994 to 2006, he took part in the organisation and the flights of 8 ESA Student campaigns. In November 1994, he helped the Dutch Astronaut Wubbo Ockels in the organisation and in the flights of the first ESA campaign for Student proposed experiments with the Caravelle. In November 1995, he participated in the second ESA Student campaign conducted aboard the NASA KC-135/931 aircraft operating for the first time outside the USA, at the Valkenburg Naval Base, The Netherlands. From 2000 to 2006, he participated in six other ESA Student campaigns on the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, helping to conduct 181 European university student experiments (see reports for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th ESA Student campaigns).

After the interruption of the ESA Student campaigns for programmatic reasons, he initiated with the ESA Education Office a new programme, the ‘Fly Your Thesis’ programme, inviting Master and Ph.D. students to propose and to fly experiments as part of their thesis research work. Twelve European student teams have participated by groups of four in three ESA microgravity research campaigns between 2009 and 2012 (see here and here).

Brussels Students in 0 g during the 2003 Student campaign (Photo: ESA)

Astronaut W. Ockels and V. Pletser helping a student during the 2006 Student campaign (Photo: ESA)

Free-floating monitoring an experiment in the Airbus A300 (Photo: ESA)

9. Brussels and Belgian Student campaigns

In 2002, he initiated a new project of flying secondary school students in microgravity during parabolic flight campaigns dedicated to student experiments. In collaboration with the Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, and the Euro Space Society, he organised a contest for Brussels secondary schools for microgravity experiment proposals. Five teams of Brussels students participated in the sixth ESA Student campaign organised in collaboration with the ESA Education Office in July 2003 (see also in French here and here). On this occasion, the Airbus A300 ZERO-G was operated for the first time out of France and landed in Brussels.

This pedagogical project encountered such a large success that it was repeated in 2006 with the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office and the Euro Space Society for secondary school students of the whole of Belgium. In July 2006, six student teams from Belgian secondary schools participated in the ninth ESA Student campaign which saw the Airbus A300 ZERO-G landing again in Brussels (see also in French here and here and in Dutch here).

This programme proved to be very successful in attracting young students to embrace scientific studies.

10. Number of experiments and some examples

During the 90 campaigns in which he participated, he supervised more than 1000 experiments in microgravity science and technology. He was Principal Investigator of 11 micro-accelerometric measurements of microgravity levels and of 2 fluid physics experiments. He participated as Scientific Operator in 83 fluid physics, material sciences, life sciences and technology experiments and as Human Test Subject in 99 medical, vestibular, cardiovascular, psychometric, neurological and ergometric experiments (see here). He participated also in microgravity related experiments on ground (11x), in centrifuge (2x) and in water immersion (1x).

Some of the microgravity physiology experiments he participated in involved :

- running on horizontal and vertical treadmills in 0g,

- ingestion of 2 litres of liquid before flight and eating and drinking in weightlessness,

- rotating chair along body's vertical (head-feet) axis and front-back axis,

- pedalling on an ergometer while breathing an air/Helium gas mixture or in apnoea with the Pulmonary Function System (PFS) instrument,

- irrigation of the inner ear with hot/cold air and with hot/cold water,

- sitting in a plethysmograph caisson with special breathing manoeuvres,

- echocardiography while in a Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) caisson.

During an ESA campaign in November 1993, he was subject for a world-first cardiovascular invasive experiment in weightlessness, involving simultaneous ultra-sound echography and instrumentation with a 40 cm arm venous catheter pressure probe inserted up to the heart, esophageal nasal and body temperature probes.

Having been a subject for an experiment on electrical activity of the brain in microgravity of Prof. O. Quadens (Univ. Antwerp, Belgium) during an ESA parabolic flight campaign in 1991, he participated in the analysis of the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals, proposing a new method to treat and analyse the EEG data involving chaotic non-linear dynamics, leading in October 1999 to the awarding of a Patent on "Method to quantify mental fatigue by EEG data treatment".

11. World record for the number of aircraft in parabolic flight

Pletser is the only person in the world who has flown parabolas on 14 different airplanes

(Aircraft type, location; campaign type (date) [number of parabolas]):

KC-135/930, NASA-JSC, Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, USA; ESA (1986-88), DLR (1992) campaigns [390]
KC-135/931, NASA-JSC; Valkenburg, The Netherlands, ESA campaigns (1995) [158]
DC-9/30, NASA-LeRC, Cleveland, USA; NASA campaign (1995) [211]
Caravelle ZERO-G, CNES, French Test Flight Centre CEV, Brétigny, France; ESA campaigns (1989-94) [1294]
Airbus A300 ZERO-G, ESA–CNES, Bordeaux, France; ESA (1997-14), DLR (2013-14), CNES (1999), and joint ESA–CNES–DLR (1999) campaigns [4401]
Airbus A310 ZERO-G, ESA–CNES–DLR, Bordeaux; ESA, DLR, joint ESA–CNES–DLR campaigns (2015-16) [585]
Ilyushin IL-76 MDK, Yu. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Moscow Russia; ESA campaigns (1994) [125]
Falcon 20, Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Ottawa; CSA campaign (2011) [48]
Cessna Citation II, Dutch Space Office NLR, Schiphol, Netherlands; ESA campaigns (2001) [47]
Fouga Magister, Belgian Air Force, Brustem; Microgravity Research Center campaign (1993) [15]
Short Skyvan, Kirchberg, Austria; Flight Instructor 14th-16th Pauls Parabelflug (2004) [58]
Grob G-103 Twin II Glider, Haifa, Israel; ISU campaign (2016) [21]
ASK21 Glider, Saint Hubert, Belgium, and Saint-Auban, France; UCLouvain and APSV campaign (2018, 2023, 2025) [43]
Cessna 150, Flying Club, Bournemouth, United Kingdom; Pilot in Training (1991) [2]

He holds the official Guinness World Record for the most aircraft flown in parabolic flight (nine), awarded in 2010 (see also here on p. 67), before he participated in the flights aboard the Falcon 20 in 2011, the ESA/CNES/DLR Airbus A310 in 2015, the Israeli Grob G-103 Twin II glider in 2016, the ASK21 glider in Belgium in 2018 and Franace in 2025, and with the Cessna-152, bringing the total of 14 aircraft flown in parabolic flights.

12. Expert positions

From 1986 till 2016, he participated in ESA Peer evaluation groups for the selection of microgravity parabolic flight experiments and he served until 1995 as Technical Expert in the ESA Medical Board for parabolic flight experiment medical protocols. He was an invited Technical Expert in the CNES Review Group for the definition of the Airbus A-300 ZERO-G (1994-97) and in the ESA-CNES-DLR Review Group for the Airbus A-310 ZERO-G (2011-14), for parabolic flights. He is a member of scientific organising committees of symposia and workshops on scientific results of microgravity parabolic flight experiments of ESA and of CNES, and of several international Boards for the definition of European Parabolic Flight activities.

In February 2004, he had the honour to present the ESA parabolic flight programme to His Majesty King Albert II of Belgium during His visit at ESTEC (see hereby and here in French).

HRH King Albert II of Belgium follows the explanations on parabolic flights of V. Pletser (Photo ESA)

13. Parabolic Flight Log

The table shows the campaign date; the parabolic flight campaign (PFC) with the number of experiments performed, the role and whether Pletser organized it; the aircraft used; the campaign location; the number of parabolas performed during the campaign; the cumulative number of parabolas; and the corresponding number of orbits.

Date Campaign Aircraft Location Par. Cum. Orb.

Mar. 86 3rd ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) KC-135/930 Houston, USA 75 75

Apr. 87 4th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) KC-135/930 Houston, USA 75 150

Oct. 87 5th ESA PFC (17 exp., lead, org.) KC-135/930 Houston, USA 75 225

Aug. 88 6th ESA PFC (16 exp., lead, org.) KC-135/930 Houston, USA 75 300 1

Feb. 89 Demo ESA PFC (3 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 30 330

Mar. 89 7th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 92 422

Oct. 89 8th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 92 514

Apr. 90 9th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 90 604 2

Jul. 90 10th ESA PFC (8 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 90 694

Oct. 90 11th ESA PFC (8 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 87 781

Feb. 91 12th ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 90 871 3

Jun. 91 13th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 93 964

Jul. 91 Bournemouth Flying Club (Pilot in Training) Cessna-152 Bournemouth, UK 2 966

Sep. 91 14th ESA PFC (8 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 75 1041

Feb. 92 Spacelab D2 Prep., DLR (1 exp.) KC-135/930 Houston, USA 90 1131 4

Mar. 92 15th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 90 1221

Jan. 93 16th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 92 1313

Aug. 93 Univ. Brussels PFC (1 exp., expert) Fouga Brustem, B 15 1328

Nov. 93 17th ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 93 1421 5

Mar. 94 18th ESA PFC (8 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 80 1501

May 94 Demo DLR PFC (1 exp.) Ilyushin-76 Berlin, D 35 1536

Jul. 94 19th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Ilyushin-76 Berlin, D 90 1626 6

Oct. 94 20th ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 93 1719

Nov. 94 1st ESA Student PFC (20 exp., lead, org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F 107 1826

Mar. 95 21st ESA PFC (9 exp., org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F [93]

Apr. 95 22nd ESA PFC (13 exp., org.) Caravelle Brétigny, F [93]

Oct. 95 Spacelab LMS Prep. PFC, NASA (1 exp.) DC-9/30 Cleveland, USA 211 2037 7

Nov. 95 2nd ESA Student PFC (24 exp.) KC-135/931 Valkenburg, NL 158 2195 8

Oct. 97 24th ESA PFC (14 exp.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 2288

Jun. 99 26th ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 2381

Oct. 99 27th ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 2474 9

Nov 99 CNES PFC (1 exp.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 2567

Dec. 99 DLR/CNES/ESA PFC (1 exp., co-org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 77 2644

May 00 28th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 97 2741 10

Oct. 00 3rd ESA Student PFC (31 exp.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 62 2803

Nov. 00 29th ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 2896

May 01 30th ESA PFC support (1 exp., lead, org.) Cessna Citation Schiphol, NL 15 2911

May 01 30th ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3004 11

May 01 30th ESA PFC support (1 exp., lead, org.) Cessna Citation Schiphol, NL 32 3036

Jul. 01 4th ESA Student PFC (31 exp.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 30 3066

Oct. 01 31st ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3159

Mar. 02 32nd ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3252 12

Sep. 02 5th ESA Student PFC (32 exp.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 62 3314

Sep. 02 33rd ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3407

Apr. 03 34th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3500 13

Jul. 03 6th ESA Stud./Bxl (20 exp, lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 62 3562

Oct. 03 35th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3655

Mar. 04 36th ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3748

Jun. 04 37th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 3841 14

Jul. 04 7th ESA Student PFC (32 exp.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 62 3903

Jul. 04 14-16 Austrian Parabel PFC (Instructor) Short Skyvan Kirchberg, AU 58 3961

Oct. 04 38th ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4054

Mar. 05 39th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4147 15

Jul. 05 40th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4240

Oct. 05 41st ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4333

Mar. 06 42nd ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4426 16

Mar. 06 43rd ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4519

Mar. 06 CNES Demo +VIP PF (8 exp., expert) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 8 4527

Sep. 06 9th ESA St./Bel. (36 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 62 4589

Oct. 06 44th ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4682 17

Oct. 06 45th ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4775

Nov. 07 46th ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 4868

Dec. 07 47th ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 99 4967 18

Mar. 08 48th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5060

Nov. 08 49th ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5153 19

Nov. 08 CNES VIP PF (5 exp., expert) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 15 5168

May 09 50th ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5261

Nov. 09 51st ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5354

May 10 52nd ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 1241 5478 20

Oct. 10 53rd ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5571

Mar. 11 CSA-McGill Univ. PFC (1 exp.) Falcon 20 Ottawa, CDN 48 5619

May 11 54th ESA PFC (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5712 21

Jun. 11 ESA/CNES/DLR JEPPF (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 932 5805

Nov. 11 55th ESA PFC (9 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5898

May 12 56th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 5991

Oct. 12 57th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 95 6086 22

Dec. 12 ESA/CNES/DLR JEPPF2 (14 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 1243 6210

Mar. 13 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 304 6240

Jun. 13 58th ESA PFC (12 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 6333

Jun. 13 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-300 Le Bourget, F 155 6348

Sep. 13 23rd DLR PFC (1 exp., guest) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 31 6379

Oct. 13 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 304 6409 23

Nov. 13 59th ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 6502

Mar. 14 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 304 6532

Apr. 14 60th ESA PFC (15 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 93 6625

Sep. 14 61st ESA PFC (11 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, 93 6718 24

Oct. 14 25th DLR PFC (last flight, guest) Airbus A-300 Bordeaux, F 31 6749

Apr. 15 Test Flights (invited expert, 2x) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 62 6811

Apr. 15 ESA/CNES/DLR CoPF (12 exp., lead, org) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 93 6904

Jun. 15 62nd ESA PFC (13 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, 93 6997 25

Jun. 15 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 304 7027

Aug. 15 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 155 7042

Sep. 15 Univ. Zurich Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Dubendorf, CH 15 7057

Nov. 15 63rd ESA PFC (10 exp., lead, org.) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 93 7150

Nov. 15 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 155 7165

Nov. 15 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 155 7180

Feb. 16 28th DLR PFC (guest) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 31 7211

Apr. 16 64th ESA PFC (11 exp., org., expert) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 62 7273 26

Jun. 16 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 155 7288

Aug. 16 ISU SSP-16 Sci. PFC (6 exp., expert) Twin II Glider Megiddo, ISR 21 7309

Apr. 17 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 165 7325

Aug. 17 ESA PF for disabled pax (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 156 7340

Sep. 17 Air 0g Discovery PF (Instructor) Airbus A-310 Bordeaux, F 165 7355

Sep. 18 UCLouvain PFC (3 exp., org., expert) ASK21 Glider Saint Hubert, B 11 7366

Apr. 23 U Oslo/UCLouvain PFC (2 exp., org., expert) ASK21 Glider Saint Hubert, B 23 7389

Jun. 25 APSV Congress (1 exp., expert) ASK21 Glider Saint-Auban, F 9 7398

1 incl. 3 Mars-g and 2 Moon-g parabolas; 2 incl. 36 Mars-g and 39 Moon-g parabolas;

3 incl. 52 Mars-g and 48 Moon-g parabolas; 4 incl. 2 Mars-g and 4 Moon-g parabolas

5 incl. 1 Mars-g and 2 Moon-g parabolas; 6 incl. 2 Moon-g parabolas

Pletser participated in 90 campaigns, led 65, organized 68, on 14 aircraft, 7398 parabolas, incl. 106 Mars-g and 115 Moon-g parabolas, with a cumulated time of 39h 32m 50s of weightlessness, equivalent to 26.3 Earth orbits; 53m at Mars-g; 50m at Moon-g. He supervised more than 1000 experiments.

14. Media Reports

Glider flights for science experiments

- "Vladimir Pletser: des expériences de six secondes en impesanteur sur le cancer, le cœur et les os" (in French), Belgian children newspaper Le Jde, Belgium, 12 April 2023.

- "Étudier le cancer, le cœur et l’os en impesanteur : Monsieur "Microgravité" s'élance en vol parabolique pour la science" (in French), Belgian Televison RTBF.be, Belgium, 4 April 2023.

- "Des vols en planeur pour aider la recherche médicale" (in French), Belgian Televison RTL Info, Belgium, 4 April 2023.

- "Saint-Hubert : la recherche médicale expérimentée à bord d'un planeur en impesanteur" (in French), Belgian Televison TVLux, Belgium, 4 April 2023.

- "Quand les scientifiques s’envoient en l’air, pour six secondes d’apesanteur en planeur" (in French), Belgian daily newspaper La Libre, Belgium, 4 April 2023.

- "Lide Space, spin-off de l’UCLouvain, propose des vols paraboliques en... planeur au profit de la recherche" (in French), Belgian daily newspaper L'Avenir, Belgium, 11 March 2023.

- "Des expériences scientifiques vont être réalisées en impesanteur lors de vols paraboliques à Saint-Hubert" (in French), Belgian daily newspaper Sudinfo, Belgium, 10 March 2023.

- "Des expériences scientifiques en impesanteur à Saint-Hubert" (in French), Belgian daily newspaper La DH-Les Sports, Saint-Hubert, Belgium, 7 March 2023.

Parabolic flights with students

- "The craziest experience of my life" (in French), video by French YouTube Influencer Squeezie, 2017.

- "Astronautas durante 22 segundos" (in Spanish, "Astronauts for 22 seconds"), Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, 5 June 2016.

- "Injection!" (in Flemish), Belgian scientific monthly journal EOS Wetenschap, 7 May 2015.

- "Vol parabolique au départ de Bordeaux en 2013" (in French), French regional television Fr3 Nouvelle Aquitaine, 22 December 2012.

- "De l’école de Baulers au Waux-Hall" (in French), Belgian daily newspaper La Libre, 9 Dec, 2008.

- "5000ème parabole pour « Monsieur Microgravité » !" (in French), European Space Agency website, 31 Mar. 2008.

- "Scholieren experimenteerden in vliegtuig in en met gewichtloosheid" (in Flemish), Belgian daily newspapers Gazet van Antwerpen, Het Belang van Limburg, 5 September 2006.

- "Des élèves de six écoles secondaires vont faire l’expérience de la microgravité" (in French), European Space Agency website, 20 Mar. 2006.

- "Elèves du secondaire, éprouvez l'effet Zero G!" (in French), European Space Agency website, 19 September 2005.

- "Expérience « d'enfer » en apesanteur" (in French, "A "hellish" experience in weightlessness"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 23 July 2003.

- "Bordeaux-Bruxelles-Bordeaux: des élèves belges en chute libre à bord d'un laboratoire volant de l'ESA" (in French), European Space Agency website, 29 May 2003.

- "Dans l'antichambre d'un vol spatial - L'impesanteur pour tous à 100.000 F le ticket? - Seize Belges à bord - Les 2.700 paraboles de Vladimir Pletser", (in French "In the anteroom of a space flight - Weightlessness for all at 100.000 F the ticket? - Sixteen Belgians on board - Vladimir Pletser's 2,700 parabolas"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 18 November 2000.

- "Pour quelques secondes de microgravité pour planer, il faut la sante. Comment et pourquoi des vols paraboliques" (in French, "For a few seconds of microgravity to float, you need a good health. How and why parabolic flights"), Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, 25 November 1995.

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