Astrophysicist Hawking to try out weightlessness

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Paralyzed British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, author of the blockbuster "A Brief History of Time," will get a brief plane trip to weightlessness next month, a US company announced Thursday.

Hawking will experience the zero-gravity sensation of outer space in a flight he hopes will lead to a 2009 rocket voyage into the cosmos, Zero Gravity Corporation said.

Hawking, who has made numerous prize-winning contributions to cosmological research, will travel aboard the private Zero Gravity flight on April 26 in a trip similar to those astronauts have taken.

"As someone who has studied gravity and black holes all of my life, I am excited to experience, firsthand, weightlessness and a zero-gravity environment," Hawking said in the company's...