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A comment on Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space. Parent comment

Re:Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space by hathawsh on Thursday December 13, 2018 @03:12PM (#18675600)
They fly the plane downward, matching the vertical acceleration with the acceleration caused by gravity.

You owe it to yourself to see these amazing videos filmed on planes that simulate zero G:

OK Go - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGJA9i18Co

Physics Girl - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1_AJWZajEk

Veritasium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQ-iIJkLzA

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Re:Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space by JumpCrisscross on Thursday December 13, 2018 @03:14PM (#18675613)
> They fly the plane downward, matching the vertical acceleration with the acceleration caused by gravity

"Contrary to popular misconception, the 0 g freefall phase of flight begins as the aircraft climbs, and does not occur solely as the aircraft descends. Although the aircraft has upward velocity during the initial 0 g phase, its acceleration is downward: the upward velocity is decreasing" [1].

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598414/

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Re:Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space by hathawsh on Thursday December 13, 2018 @03:40PM (#18675866)
Good clarification, thanks. By "downward", I meant downward acceleration, not necessarily downward velocity, although colloquial usage of "downward" usually means velocity.
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Re:Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space by modernerd on Thursday December 13, 2018 @03:41PM (#18675872)
And Stephen Hawking! https://youtu.be/jhCPincElC4?t=49
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