CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The "vomit comet" could disappear soon.

Video

Plane helps astronauts experience weightlessness.

NASA's zero-gravity plane might become a victim of budget cuts. NewsChannel 2 space reporter Dan Billow experienced the memorable ride himself in 1998 and took a look at the amazing plane that makes people float in weightlessness.

Every astronaut, back to the time of Alan Shepard, has felt weightlessness for the first time, not in space, but in a 1950s-vintage Boeing 707, also called a KC-135. But astronaut Wally Schirra gave it the name that has stuck through the decades -- vomit comet. The plane produces brief periods of weightlessness, a condition that makes about one-third of its passengers sick.

Budget cuts may force NASA to shut down the plane for good, meaning the loss of a valuable training aid. Astronauts learn how to do many things -- even take showers – on the plane.

NASA has performed animal experiments, and even allows college students to do zero-gravity research on the plane. The plane is expensive to operate, but many at NASA believe that it is too valuable to put in mothballs. Its fate may be decided this fall, when Congress decides whether to restore some of the Bush administration's cuts in NASA's budget.

To comment on this story, send an e-mail to Dan Billow.