To break through the Earth's atmosphere and travel to space, astronauts must travel very fast. An essential part of human spaceflight training is experiencing and familiarizing astronauts with the physical feeling of g-forces – the rapid acceleration and heavy pull of gravity on a human’s body.
The Ax-2 crew trained in a human centrifuge to simulate the various phases of spaceflight, including the gravitation forces, called g-forces, that will be experienced during launch and the crew’s return to Earth. Testing the reaction and tolerance of astronauts and how gravity affects the body in multiple ways is vital to their training. The crew worked with Axiom Space and SpaceX at the National AeroSpace Training And Research (NASTAR) Center, a state-of-the-art flight simulation facility located in Pennsylvania.