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source: Guardian Unlimited

Hawking set to fly in space

The sight of Stephen Hawking, scientist and best-selling author, bouncing about weightless in space is about to become a reality later today. Renowned theoretical physicist and author of A Brief History of Time, the 65-year-old physicist will be the first person with a disability to fly on one of the flights offered by Zero Gravity a space tourism company, based in Florida. The firm offers stomach-churning, sometimes vomit-inducing, flights for £1,875, although Professor Hawking has been offered the flight for free. A similar plane, nicknamed the "vomit comet", is used by the American space agency Nasa to train astronauts. After the modified Boeing 727, which will take off and land from the space shuttle runway at Cape Canaveral, has reached its proper altitude, Prof Hawking's assistants will lay him on his back in the front of the cabin for the first plunge. Each "parabolic" manoeuvre will begin with a sharp climb to around 32,000 feet, followed by a rapid 8,000-foot descent. Other plunges will be made only after the two doctors and three nurses who are accompanying him have made sure he is enjoying it. "I have wanted to fly in space all of my life," Professor Hawking told the Associated Press. "For someone like me whose muscles don't work very well, it will be bliss to be weightless." Prof Hawking is almost totally paralysed by motor neuron disease. Unable to talk or move his hands and legs, he can only make tiny facial expressions using the muscles around his eyes, eyebrows, cheek and mouth to communicate. Otherwise, he relies on a computer, attached to his wheelchair, to talk for him in a synthesised voice. He will not have his wheelchair and talking computer on the jet with him, although his assistant will bring a laptop and a card with the letters of the alphabet in case he wants to communicate beyond facial expressions. "We consider ... having him weightless for 25 seconds is a successful mission," said Peter Diamandis, chairman and chief executive of Zero Gravity. "If we do more than one, fantastic." Today's flight is more than a thrill ride for Prof Hawking. He believes in the importance of private space ventures and the need to reduce the cost of space tourism so that it is within reach of more people. "I am hopeful that if we can engage this mass market, the cost of space flight will drop and we will be able to gain access to the resources of space and also spread humanity beyond just Earth," he said. "Sooner or later, some disaster may wipe out life on Earth. The long-term survival of the human race requires that we spread into space." Last year Prof Hawking publicly spoke of his desire to go into space and appealed to Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, who plans to provide sub-orbital rides to paying passengers as early as 2009. Sir Richard has agreed to "fix it" for the professor and arrange a Virgin Galactic flight for him. The spacecraft, to be launched from a mother ship at 50,000 feet, is supposed to soar to a height of 360,000 feet and reach a speed of 2,500 mph.