“I could have gone on and on,” Hawking said. “Space here I come!”
Okay, I’m envious. But it’s also inspiring to watch people soar. And when that person has been bound for decades to a wheelchair, it’s even better. Stephen Hawking, world famous physicist and author of the international best-seller A Brief History of Time, experienced weightlessness yesterday in a modified jet that simulates zero-G conditions for short intervals, as it flies in parabolic arcs.
Aircraft that do this, often to provide training for future astronauts, are affectionately called vomit comets.
Hawking’s host was Zero Gravity Corp., whose co-founder and chief executive officer Peter Diamandis was reported as saying before the flight that he’d “claim success if Hawking had just a single half-minute float in weightlessness aboard the company’s specially modified Boeing 727 jet.” It turned out that Hawking took eight turns “with ease,” according to a report from Alan Boyle at MSNBC.
Yesterday’s ride in zero-G was in preparation for Hawking’s ultimate goal, which is a trip into space on a rocket plane: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.
Enjoy the video. Watch for the smile on Hawking’s face. And if you want more, be sure to read Alan’s Boyle’s great post in his blog Cosmic Log about Hawking’s flight.
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No one deserves it more than Stephen Hawking.
it was wonderful to see a man so thoughtful of physics and space and cosmological theory actually get to experience a brief moment of his dream environment. he is the ideal hero that goes unsung. we drove out to see if he was still at the center but he was already gone.
Stephen Hawking deserves to be one of the first civilians to go in space. He should have honorary astronaut wings.
If you read this post, then read David’s post, Saving spaceflight, you can see just one more reason why we will continue to explore space. Call it perhaps the sheer pleasure of finding out, of understanding. Certainly Stephen Hawking represents that. Now, whether we will fund our curiosity and search into the unknown depends on how much money we spend on the opposite expense: killing each other and tearing civilization down.