Hot on Facebook

Guy Buys $123 Safe on eBay, Finds $26,000 Inside Seller tries to get half the cash back, fails »

Stephen Hawking Test-Drives Zero Gravity

By Peter Fearon, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 27, 2007 12:32 PM CDT

(Newser) – Paralyzed super-physicist Stephen Hawking completed a zero-gravity flight off the Florida coast yesterday—floating weightless and free of his wheelchair for 25-second busts. "It was amazing," Hawking said after the flight. "Space, here I come!" The American firm normally charges $3,750 for the experience, but waived the fee for the Hawking.

The physicist, who is 65 and suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease, was weightless for eight bursts during the one hour flight. Hawking proclaimed last year that humanity "doesn't have a future" without colonizing other planets. He wants to go into space with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, scheduled to begin flights in 2009.

[Images (1)]

[Videos (1)]

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

Professor Stephen Hawking Takes Zero-Gravity Flight (marketwire (YouTube))

View larger videos >>

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next »

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Intel Trying to Help Stephen Hawking Speak

70-year-old cosmologist losing ability as facial nerves deteriorate

(NEWSER) - Computer chip-maker Intel is hunting for a new technology to help Stephen Hawking communicate better, reports AP . The 70-year-old scientist currently uses a device that runs pulses in his right cheek through a voice synthesizer, but his facial nerves have deteriorated to the point where he can speak only about one word per minute. More»

Ill Stephen Hawking Misses 70th Birthday

Scientist was released from hospital on Friday

(AP) - The University of Cambridge says renowned physicist Stephen Hawking isn't well enough to attend a conference held to celebrate his 70th birthday . Hawking's remarkable career is being honored today as part of a daylong conference on cosmology being hosted at the university. But the celebrity scientist, who suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease, was released from the hospital on Friday. And university Vice Chancellor Leszek Borysiewicz says Hawking's "recovery has not been fast enough for him to be able to be here." More»

Stephen Hawking Turning 70

He has survived half-a-century with Lou Gehrig's disease

(AP) - British scientist Stephen Hawking has decoded some of the most puzzling mysteries of the universe, but he has left one mystery unsolved: How he has managed to survive so long with such a crippling disease. The physicist was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease when he was a 21-year-old at Cambridge. Most people die within a few years: Hawking will turn 70 on Sunday. More»

Space Tourism Blasts Off

Virgin Galactic to start the business up in earnest

(NEWSER) - The year is still nascent, but 2012 may go down in history as the year space tourism finally took flight. This year Virgin Galactic will finally begin launching its much-ballyhooed jaunts into space, the New York Times reports, opening up the heavens to the non-billionaire set. Granted, you’ll still need to be pretty well heeled to afford the $200,000 flight, but that’s a far cry from the tens of millions that tickets aboard Russia’s capsules cost—a price only seven people have paid. More»

First 'Spaceport' Coming to New Mexico

But project is late and getting expensive

(NEWSER) - Now that the shuttle's blasted off for the last time, attention is turning to the private space industry, and NPR has found an interesting piece of that puzzle: America’s first spaceport. The structure, under construction in a New Mexico desert, aims to be something like an airport for spaceships, and it’s already signed up Virgin Galactic as its first client. The site has a lot of advantages—it’s sparsely populated, its airspace is clear, and it’s a mile above sea level. More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website