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Stephen Hawking: "I'm planning space flight"

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17 years 11 months ago #38647 by Seanie_Morris
Interesting...


Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says he wants to undertake a zero-gravity flight aboard an airplane this year as a precursor to a journey into space, a newspaper reported Monday.

"This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009," he was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Hawking, 65, has said he hopes to travel on British businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic service, which is scheduled to launch in 2009. The service will charge space tourists about $200,000 (about £100,000) for a two-hour suborbital trip some 87 miles (140 kilometers) above the Earth.

Branson was keen to help the scientist realize his dream of space flight, Virgin Galactic spokesman Stephen Attenborough said Monday.

"Richard is very determined that if we can possibly make this happen, then it should," Attenborough said.

He said the company had not discussed the issue of payment with Hawking.

One of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation, Hawking gained fame with the best-selling book "A Brief History of Time."

The scientist, who uses a wheelchair and communicates with the help of a computer because he suffers from a neurological disorder called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe, proposing that space and time have no beginning and no end.

Hawking has warned that the survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth.

Midlands Astronomy Club.
Radio Presenter (Midlands 103), Space Enthusiast, Astronomy Outreach Co-ordinator.
Former IFAS Chairperson and Secretary.

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17 years 11 months ago #38650 by dogstar
Replied by dogstar on topic hawkins space flight
i cant think of anyone more deserving of the opportunity,the zero g must be even greater for someone wheelchair bound

oh wise man why is the universe so perfect?ah because symmetry loves herself.

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17 years 11 months ago #38687 by Kerry Stargazer
I concur with dogstar. Never has there been a more a deserving person that should go into space.

Chairman of Kerry Astronomy Club.
My Kung-Fu 's the best (Melvin Frohike X-Files)

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17 years 11 months ago #38689 by dave_lillis
If you can pay for it or get a freebee, why not, What he should have said was

Hawking has warned that the survival of the human race depends on its ability to provide him with a trip on a zero-gravity flight aboard an airplane this year as a precursor to a journey into space
:lol: :wink:

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Chairman. Shannonside Astronomy Club (Limerick)

Carrying around my 20" obsession is going to kill me,
but what a way to go. :)
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17 years 11 months ago #38692 by michaeloconnell
Best advert Virgin could ever get.

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