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Who is Jack Martin Pressman? 8-year-old American becomes youngest to experience zero gravity
At the age of eight years and 33 days, Jack Martin Pressman from the USA bagged this impressive Guinness World Record. A US company organised his flight.
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Eight-year-old Jack Martin Pressman did something that many of his age and even most adults can only imagine doing—he experienced zero gravity. He became the only kid in the history of the world to have this incredible experience. Guinness World Records (GWR) shared a video of Jack with his parents performing tricks while floating around.
“Youngest person to fly in zero gravity (male) - Jack Martin Pressman (b. 11 March 2016), who is 8 years and 33 days old,” GWR wrote. “While most childhood dreams are eventually left behind, young Jack turned his into a record-breaking reality,” the organisation continued.
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In the video shared, Jack is seen floating around with other participants. He puts water droplets in his mouth, tries catching jelly beans, and even performs some cool tricks. As per a GWR blog, his flight was organised by Zero G. It is a company that offers “zero gravity flights for astronaut training, scientific research and public enjoyment.”
Take a look at the video:
What fostered his love for space?
According to the GWR blog, Jack has always been fascinated by space. His mother, Jessica Pressman, told the organisation, “He used to love Buzz Lightyear when he was a lot younger and actually, to foster that love and curiosity of space, we built him his own secret space room.”
“It had its own private entrance, nobody else knew about it, and when you walked in the room was a beautiful moonlight blue, and there were hundreds and hundreds of glow-in-the-dark stars everywhere, and constellations and planets, and he had his own little spaceship,” she continued.
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“He and I would crawl into that spaceship and we would cuddle up and I would read him stories about space,” she recalled, adding, “I would like to think that that fostered his love for space.”
Jack’s experience - in his own words
“It was really exciting but when you first push off a wall you just fly super-fast and then you need to learn a lot while you’re in zero gravity,” he said, adding, “[The scariest part was] probably that you might hit somebody else by accident.” He experienced zero gravity 18 times, each lasting about 30 seconds.
The eight-year-old now aspires to become an astronaut. He also wants to be the youngest person to go to space.
