Out of this world I'm soon happily turning somersaults as I join a zero-gravity training flight

It feels as if I'm hallucinating: as I lie on the floor, the ceiling suddenly sinks towards me and the walls begin to tilt at an impossible angle.

- Hannah Devlin

It is my first experience of zero gravity on a European Space Agency (Esa) parabolic flight. In theory I know what is going on, but my brain just cannot grasp that it is actually me that is floating, that I'm suspended mid-air.

I am accompanying Britain's first female Esa astronaut, Rosemary Coogan, on the flight as part of her zero gravity training for her potential six-month deployment to the International Space Station.

During the three-hour flight, sometimes referred to as the "Vomit Comet", the plane will trace out 31 parabolas - soaring arcs in the sky - designed to create zero gravity conditions inside the plane.

As we await takeoff, any nerves I felt have been replaced by excitement, my confidence bolstered by the spacesuit I've been issued and a generous injection of anti-nausea medication.