The Flyin' Lions will soon have the opportunity to experience something few people will ever get the opportunity to do -- feel weightless.

This March, Penn State's student microgravity team will travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for a week to fly and conduct an experiment in plasma physics on NASA's "Weightless Wonder" reduced gravity aircraft.

The "Weightless Wonder" is a modified McDonnell Douglas DC-9 that conducts parabolic flights allowing students to experience weightlessness. The plane does a steep climb, followed by an equally steep descent, giving them about 25 seconds of weightlessness out of 65 seconds of flight. Each team will have about 30 of these hills, called parabolas, to run experiments, according to a NASA press release.

The team of seven engineering students was one of 34 undergraduate student teams across the country selected to participate in NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. It is the third team from Penn State that will get the opportunity to participate in the program.

"Each year about 100 teams apply and the number increases each year," Matthew Futterman (senior-mechanical engineering), team leader of The Flyin' Lions, said. The team spent about two months writing its proposal, he said, picking up where another Penn State team left off.

"Last year we spent a lot of time learning the background, and this year we were able to pull ourselves together and write an expansive proposal," Futterman said.

When the students arrive, they will spend several days preparing themselves physically for the flight.

"About a third of the people that go up for every flight usually puke. When the first team went up, they were the first Penn State team to not puke," Futterman said.

This is how the "Weightless Wonder" got its nickname the "Vomit Comet."

"They say you get sick, but I don't think I'll be one of them," Chad Gerdish, (senior-aerospace engineering) one of the four flyers, said.

Gerish said he thinks their experiment would work. The group is conducting ground tests to ensure proper function. He added that the team will get two flights, which will last about two hours.

"It's going to be a really good experience; it's pretty much the best roller coaster in the world," Gerdish said.