UVM RECORD, September 10 to 23, 1998

For second time this year, students from UVM boarded NASA's KV-135 aircraft to test their mettle as well as their bioengineering equipment.

In March, four UVM students experienced zero gravity on two flights in the aircraft, popularly know as the "vomit comet."

In mid-August, a new crew of students participated in NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program.  Mark Miller, a doctoral candidate in engineering, led the students to the Johnson Space Center.

The students were Geoff Gaida, of Burlington, a junior in mechanical engineering major; Marko Rosenfeldt, of Hamilton, Mass., a May graduate in mechanical engineering; and Robert Sewell and Martha Price, both junior engineering majors at Norwich University.

The UVM students tested their experiment - scheduled to be launched in a NASA rocket in October - on the effect of microgravity on fruit flies.