From Perth to parabolas: Australia’s next space milestone to take flight.
Aussie space sciences are set to reach new heights – and a state of weightlessness – this October, with an Australian scientific team scheduled to fly on a large crewed parabolic flight campaign.
A new agreement between the French Space Agency (CNES) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) will showcase Australia’s growing role as a test bed for space experiments and open the door to new international research partnerships.
The country's first zero‑gravity research mission of this kind will be conducted aboard Novespace’s Airbus A310 Zero‑G, one of the world’s largest civilian microgravity research platforms.
The Aussie research team, drawn from UWA’s International Space Centre, will test an early‑stage experiment aimed at advancing the extraction of fuel and fertiliser from off‑Earth resources – a capability central to the long‑term sustainability of human space exploration.
At the heart of the study is chemical catalysis. Researchers will use sunlight to convert two common gases – methane and carbon dioxide – into syngas, a versatile chemical mixture used to produce fuels and essential materials.
The campaign includes three zero‑gravity flights comprising 93 parabolic manoeuvres, each delivering up to 30 seconds of weightlessness.
That repeated window of microgravity allows the team to watch how the process behaves as gravity changes, fine‑tune the setup in real time, and collect the foundational data needed to design future systems that could make propellant and agricultural inputs from materials available in space.
"This mission will pave the way for sustained access to large, crewed microgravity flights for Australian researchers, with enormous benefits to research, industry and STEM inspiration.”
~ International Space Centre Director Professor Danail Obreschkow
"The weightless environment offers a unique opportunity to understand how gravity influences chemical processes – insights that could support future space missions while also helping optimise chemical manufacturing on Earth."
~ Scientific lead Professor Hongqi Sun
Aussie students invited to join the Zero‑G research
The CNES-UWA partnership reflects not only the expanding international networks to accelerate research outcomes, but also an opportunity to strengthen the pipeline of national capability.
As part of the campaign, UWA’s International Space Centre is offering two placements to Australian undergraduate students.
A national competition is now open to undergraduates enrolled at any Australian university, providing a rare chance to take part in a live international microgravity campaign and gain hands‑on experience in zero‑gravity experimentation.
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Main image caption: Novespace Airbus A310 Zero G
Credit: University of Western Australia
