It was, Dave Mackay assured me, one of the most stunning experiences of his life. And from the man who recently ignited the rockets on a spaceship as chief test pilot for Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic project, that was an impressive recommendation.

And so taking his advice, here I was on the tarmac at Newark airport in New Jersey, kitted out in my blue flight suit with another 25 passengers, about to embark on a zero gravity journey aboard a Boeing 727 plunging and soaring in 12,000ft arcs over the North Atlantic.

Nine of my fellow flyers were Virgin Galactic space tourists preparing for their $200,000 forays into sub-orbit by finding their weightlessness legs in advance.

Among their ranks was Cheryl Howard, the actress whose husband Ron took several zero gravity flights when he was directing the film Apollo 13. On this day, however, Mr Howard had just come along to support his wife before the flight and would be remaining with his feet firmly on Earth.

Astronauts, of course, conduct their work in a zero gravity environment thousands of miles up in space. But for $4,950, the same sensation can be yours on Zero Gravity Corporations G-Force One, a modified jet whose pilots induce weightlessness through a series of mid-air manoeuvres called parabolas.

Nasa puts its astronauts through a much more rigorous version of the same flights as part of their training, pushing participants to nausea in what has been colourfully nicknamed the vomit comet.

That detail was causing some preflight nerves, even though Zero-Gs president Terese Brewster and her team of instructors assured us that we would not be subjected to anything as intense.

As someone who long ago swore never to ride another rollercoaster and has often felt nauseous on boats, the prospect of motion sickness still worried me as I prepared boldly to go where few have gone before.

But within an hour, I was indeed floating, without any stomach churning discomfort, in the remarkable world of zero gravity as we repeatedly dived 12,000 feet before then being pinned to the matted floor by the gravitational force (G force) when we accelerated back up to the top of the arc. Around me, my fellow passengers were pirouetting and somersaulting, not to mention delivering passable impressions of Superman, arm punched out ahead.

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My incredible flight to the weightless world of space travel on the 'vomit comet'