Taking it off the ground

Her fans are right. Kate Upton is just out of this world.

That certainly proved to be the case as she posed under zero gravity conditions for a one-off photoshoot for Sports Illustrated's 50th edition.

Clad in a tiny gold bikini, the 21-year-old model swung upside down and all around as she was photographed in a Zero Gravity Plane at the Space Coast Regional Airport at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, Mail Online reported.

Video showed Upton attempting to keep her curves inside the tiny swimsuit as she twisted and turned, while assistants threw accessories at her.

There were make-up artists, photographers, videographers and editors onboard the aircraft.

Upton and the production team braved the loss of gravity for 17 flights, 34,000 feet over Florida, until their mission was completed, news.discovery.com reported.

"The Zero-G experience was really exhilarating for everyone involved," said editor of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue M. J. Day in a press release.

"We have been almost everywhere in the past 50 years with SI Swimsuit, but we have never done anything like this.

"It was certainly the most out-of-the-box shoot.

"Once again, Kate surprised us all with how she handled modelling in weightlessness."

It wasn't the first extreme modelling assignment Upton has faced.

In December 2012, she braved the bone-chilling climate of Antarctica, clad in just a bikini.

Although unprecedented, this isn't the only alternative use Zero-G Corp has seen.

In 2010, Astronauts4Hire used the plane for beer tasting.

In an effort to understand how the taste of different types of beer changes in zero-gravity, the researchers - hired by an Australian brewery - discovered that the optimised "space beer" should be a reduced carbonation stout.