First zero-gravity surgery set to be performed

A team of French doctors are to attempt the world's first human operation in zero-gravity. It will serve as a test for performing surgery in space. The pioneering aircraft enabling the operation is Zero-G, a plane designed and built by Europe to simulate gravity-free conditions, providing a priceless laboratory-in-the-sky to test out new technologies.

Working inside a custom-made operating block, three surgeons, backed by two anaesthetists and a team of army parachutists, will remove a fatty tumour from the forearm of an intrepid volunteer over the course of a three-hour flight.