s3 planeWe’ll hear in October when the commercial Zero-Gravity flights will be ready for takeoff in North Bay.

As we learned last week, Swiss Space Systems will be in North Bay for World Space Week and that’s when they will launch the online portal to buy tickets, and detail the official launch date.

Canadian Representative Rolf Brandt says they are still preparing the aircraft in Switzerland so it can meet the standards of Transport Canada.

He says “due to the maneuver that we’re doing we have increased technical maintenance intervals because there is more stress on the mainframe. Some of it can be done here, on location.”

However, Brandt adds some of that work can only be done at their industries in Switzerland.

Meantime, Mayor Al McDonald says this opens up huge potential for the city to attract new business, and adds there is opportunity for local business as well.

He says “local business actually created the test model, so that’s what we want; we want local businesses to be a part of this.”

McDonald says business and industry will go where the skills and expertise are and they want that landing spot to be North Bay.

Written by: matthew.sookram@northbayradio.rogers.com