When teaching the NES module, Exploring Space Through Math — The Weightless Wonder, your students may be interested in some background information about NASA’s Weightless Wonder aircraft.The aircraft is a C-9. NASA acquired the airplane from the U.S. Navy on August 9, 2003, from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state. The C-9 is the military version of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 used for many years by the commercial airlines. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force have used the C-9 aircraft to support passenger transportation, medical evacuation and special missions.
The primary mission of the NASA C-9 is to provide NASA and government microgravity researchers the platform to perform their research in a reduced-gravity environment. The aircraft also is used for Heavy Aircraft Training for astronaut pilots; to support the movement of the shuttle from landing sites in California and New Mexico back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Trans-Atlantic Landing support; and the Emergency Mission Control Move mission.
| “Born” on Date: | Jan. 15, 1970 |
| First Owner: | KLM Airlines |
| U.S. Navy: | July 8, 1989 – Aug.9, 2003 |
| Total Time on Aircraft: | 53,064.3 hours |
| Total Number of Landings: | 45,882 |
Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.
I am a home school teacher and I also have the honor of facilitating a STEM after school program with the Housing authority of the City of El Paso.
We look foward to our upcoming visit to the NASA training facility.
We have a number of enthusiastic participants ages 4- early middle school.
Thank you for this information. We are new to NES and look foward to presenting the program and it’s contents to our young people.
Respectfully,
Jeri