Date Set for Stephen Hawkings to Go Weightless

I have written of this remarkable man before, and each time I read of his accomplishments, despite his extraordinary disabilities, I am struck by the strength and fortitude of man. God indeed made us only a “little lower than the angels.”

News item by Alan Boyle of MSNBC

British physicist Stephen Hawking, who is world-famous for his intellectual prowess as well as his physical frailty, has made a firm date with weightlessness on April 26, aboard a jet flying out of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Hawking’s excellent adventure, provided by California-based Zero Gravity Corp., would represent one small step toward the 65-year-old scientist’s goal of flying in space as early as 2009 — as well as one giant leap for people with disabilities.

Read the remainder of the article here.

Edit: From The Washington Post

A Long-Awaited Taste of Outer Space

Stephen Hawking Takes a Buoyant Ride on a Zero-Gravity Flight

By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; Page A01

CAPE CANAVERAL, April 26 — It might not seem like a brilliant idea, allowing a frail 65-year-old paralytic to float free from gravity aboard a rising and plunging roller-coaster stunt flight.

But who’s to argue with Stephen Hawking?

The celebrated British astrophysicist and black-hole theorist, author of “A Brief History of Time,” paralyzed by Lou Gehrig’s disease and communicating largely through eye movements, has long wanted to visit outer space. Human survival depends on getting there, he says. An event here Thursday was described as his first improbable step.

Stephen Hawking amazes me.

 

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