the closest that i will ever...

...get to actually being in outer space and experiencing zero gravity (i.e. weightlessness) would be to ride the vomit comet...NASA has their own for training and now it's actually available commercially...oooh, time to break the piggy... =))

Zero-G Weightless Flights (click here for their website) are coming to Kennedy Space Center. Cost: US$3,750 plus tax. It's basically like skydiving in a fuselage.

The Zero Gravity Corporation has been fulfilling astronaut fantasies since 2004. This Fort Lauderdale-based "space entertainment and tourism" outfit operates G-Force One, a modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft that carries up to 27 fliers through high-altitude maneuvers designed to create a weightless environment inside an empty jetliner.

It's the most radical flight plan in the friendly skies, an airborne roller coaster at 24,000 to 32,000 feet in which pilots perform a series of "parabolas," or long, linked 45-degree climbs and 30-degree dives. At the top of each parabola, the contents of the aircraft- the passengers- are rendered weightless for 25-30 seconds. Take that split-second swing-set stomach drop, stretched to 25 seconds, and you have an idea of what the ride is all about. Or think of it as skydiving, without the rush of wind, over and over again.

NASA uses a similar setup to train its shuttle jockeys. It's nicknamed the "vomit comet," and for good reason. At the bottom of each parabola, passengers experience 1.8 G -- 1.8 times the force of Earth's gravity. And that's more than enough to shift the human gastrointestinal transmission into reverse.

Zero-G is the only company in the nation approved by the FAA to offer this unique experience to the public. And thanks to a new deal with Kennedy Space Center that allows for use of the Shuttle Landing Facility, the first step toward civilian space travel can take place right here in Central Florida.