Zero Gravity Research Facility Painted for the Nation’s Bicentennial

The 4.5-foot diameter decelerator cart at the bottom of the Zero Gravity Research Facility painted to note the nation’s 1976 bicentennial at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lewis Research Center. Test packages dropped inside the facility’s 450-foot deep chamber experienced five seconds of microgravity. The test equipment allowed researchers to film and take measurements of the experiment as it was falling. The 2500‐pound package was slowed by 15-feet of special Styrofoam‐like pellets in this decelerator cart. In April 1976 Center Director Bruce Lundin announced that Lewis would observe a week of events in late June to celebrate the bicentennial. On July 4, the center would host an open house for its employees and their families.