Kate Upton gets a taste of zero gravity for Sports Illustrated shoot

Busty supermodel Kate Upton scored a lift-off as the back cover girl of the 50th anniversary edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue - she was picked for a zero-gravity shoot.

The stunning blonde, who fronted the annual magazine in 2012 and 2013 and famously posed wearing next to nothing in freezing Antarctica for the publication, got to experience weightlessness in Florida.

A film crew captured Upton floating around in the G-Force One capsule for the first ever Swimsuit Issue photoshoot staged seven miles (11.2 kilometres) above the earth.

Upton, who wore a two-piece gold lame bikini for the space-age session, admits she quickly felt "ridiculous" as zero-gravity kicked in high above Tampa.

She explains, "I shot straight up to the ceiling and then I didn't know how to get off the ceiling... I was thinking, 'What am I doing here?'"

The model hopes her next Sports Illustrated assignment is more down-to-earth after riding the same 'vomit comet' used to train astronauts - and shoot Justin Bieber fragrance ads.

She quips, "I'd prefer the next shoot be in a temperature-controlled hotel room.

"I'll be wearing regular clothes, reading a book."