Contact Information: For More Information: Dorota Kozakiewicz SPACELAND +39.011.234.14.635 - 684 www.SPACELAND.it Natalie Mounier Kirvin Doak Communications 702-737-3100 Email Contact
Italy's SPACELAND Teams Up With Zero Gravity Corporation to Fly Oldest Man Ever on Weightless Research Flight
SPACELAND Breaks Its Own World Record With 93-Year-Old Microgravity Test Subject for ICT and Biomedical Technology
| Source: ZERO-G
MERRITT ISLAND, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 30, 2007 -- KENNEDY SPACE CENTER -- Italy's SPACELAND group, which organized the
world's first non-governmental zero gravity research flight in 2005, broke
its own record for the oldest microgravity test subject when it flew
93-year-old Cesare Massano aboard Zero
Gravity Corporation's (ZERO-G)
G-FORCE ONE on April 28 from the Kennedy Space Center.
Led by SPACELAND's zero gravity veteran Doct. Eng. Carlo Viberti, a former
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut
office engineer who also coordinated the ESA technology experiments on
board the Russian space station MIR, the microgravity research and
education flight focused on the oldest man to ever experience
weightlessness. Mr. Massano, from SPACELAND's headquarter town of Torino
(Italy), served as test subject for Info-Communications Technology (ICT),
biomedical and bioengineering experiments, with a special focus on
monitoring and understanding cardiac behavioral patterns in elderly people
under increased G-force conditions. The SPACELAND team of scientists and
engineers used tele-medicine tools, webcam-controlled human computer
interfaces as well as non-invasive acupuncture techniques to test and
counteract space motion sickness. Started in 2005 with the world's first
disabled woman flying weightless for
SPACELAND ICT experiments, the historic research flight program included
participation from several VIPs including the Italian Parliament Dignitary
Honorable Marco Airaghi.
NASA and Space Florida supports the SPACELAND research and educational
flights, which have been organized by assembling the experimental hardware
necessary, and training the selected candidates at SPACELAND's training
camp in the Alps (2,000 meters above sea level) within the 2006 Winter
Olympic territory of Piemonte (Italy).
"Italy is a valued partner with the U.S. on various space programs,
including the International Space Station," said NASA Spaceport Development
Manager Jim Ball. "We are pleased to host these experiments that take off
from the Shuttle Landing Facility."
"As also appreciated by the President of the Republic of Italy, our crew
with its record-breaking 93-year-old test subject Cesare Massano proves the
excellence of the SPACELAND experimental program, whose research activities
in weightlessness are always carried out with crews composed of both
scientists and laymen of all ages," said SPACELAND President Carlo Viberti.
The experience offered by ZERO-G is the only commercial opportunity on
Earth for individuals to experience true "weightlessness" without going to
space and SPACELAND is the world's first non-governmental organization to
have carried out research flight campaigns in zero-gravity and
lunar-gravity, benefiting from the synergy with ZERO-G and Houston's PARU
Services.
About SPACELAND Italia
Conceived in 1999 and launched at the beginning of the new century,
SPACELAND (www.SpaceLand.it) is the
first non-government association in the field. It organizes weightless and
low-gravity research and educational flight campaigns in synergy with NASA
and Space Florida, allowing the laymen to get involved in scientific
research and scientists to improve the quantity of their state-of-art R&D
activities. They can benefit from the SPACELAND's "flying lab" to
accelerate analysis, testing & qualification of methodologies, systems and
products related to gravity-dependent chemical-physical interaction
mechanisms, biotechnological applications, pharmaceutical drugs,
acupuncture applications against space motion sickness, countermeasures for
osteoporosis, muscular atrophy, cardiac, neuro-vestibular and other
gravity-dependent pathologies.
About ZERO-G
Zero Gravity Corporation (www.GoZeroG.com) is a privately held space entertainment and tourism company
whose mission is to make the excitement and adventure of weightlessness
accessible to the public. ZERO-G is based in Las Vegas and Florida and is
the first and only FAA-approved provider of weightless flight to the
general public, as well as the entertainment and film industries; corporate
and incentive market; non-profit research and education sectors; and
government.