Retired sprinter Usain Bolt, French astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy, and Novespace CEO Octave de Gaulle, race in zero-gravity conditions during a flight in a specially modified Airbus Zero-G plane above Reims, France, on Sept. 12, 2018.BENOIT TESSIER/Reuters
Usain Bolt sprinted through thin air and sipped Champagne while floating on his back as he enjoyed near zero-gravity conditions in an aircraft performing stomach-lurching parabola dives.
The eight-time Olympic champion grinned as he experienced weightlessness in the modified plane normally used for scientific research, but on this occasion to showcase a Champagne bottle that will allow astronauts to drink bubbles in space.
Bolt called it a “mindblowing” experience.
“I was nervous but as soon as the first one [parabola] goes you kind of go ‘oh my God, what’s happening.’ But after the third one I was like ‘yeah, it’s crazy,’ ” Bolt told Reuters TV.
The bottle was designed by Champagne-maker G.H. Mumm et Cie. In time the company hopes to capitalize on the advent of space tourism.
Usain Bolt poses with a bottle of Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar champagne aboard the zero-gravity Airbus Zero-G plane.BENOIT TESSIER/Reuters
Billionaires Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon Inc., and Richard Branson are locked in a race to send wealthy tourists into suborbital space, high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says he is aiming to send paying passengers around the moon.
They may want to toast their adventures.
“The tourists will be enjoying the view of the Earth, the view of space, weightlessness, and they will celebrate. So maybe there is not a market for a lot of bottles in space, but there is a market for some bottles,” said Jean-François Clervoy, a French former astronaut who accompanied Bolt on his flight.