SpaceRef - Microgravity Science - Ground Based Facilities

SpaceRef - Microgravity Science - Ground Based Facilities - Drop Towers

2.2 Second Drop Tower - This facility at NASA Glenn Research Center allows investigators to test experimental packages in a microgravity environment for a period of 2.2 seconds. The current focus of the programs utilizing the facility is in the areas of combustion science and fluid physics.

Marshall Space Flight Center Drop Tube Facility - This facility consists of a tube of 105 meters in length. Small samples with diameters up to 8 millimeters can be melted at the top and dropped. Free-fall times of 4.6 seconds produce a quiescent, micro-gravity environment. Vacuum levels of less than a billionth of an atmosphere are achievable.

Zero Gravity Research Facility - The Zero-Gravity Research Facility at NASA Glenn Research Center is a 145-meter shaft with an integral vacuum drop chamber, an experiment vehicle free falls from the top of the vacuum chamber, resulting nominally in 5 seconds of free fall.