April 26, 2007 — Noted cosmologist Stephen Hawking, paralyzed by a progressive and incurable neuromuscular disorder and stripped of his voice by tracheotomy, has more reasons than most for wanting to experience the freedom of weightlessness.
Yet the 65-year-old physicist, author and university professor took off for a zero-gravity simulating plane ride on Thursday for one primary reason: to raise public awareness for spaceflight.
"I think the human race doesn't have a future if it doesn't go into space," Hawking said in an interview with Discovery News. "I therefore want to encourage public interest in space. A zero-gravity flight is the first step towards space travel."
Hawking speaks by twitching a cheek muscle which controls a word processor and voice synthesizer. It is a slow and tedious process, turning conversation into a Zen-like meditative flow. Nevertheless, Hawking doesn't pinch words.
The author of the best-selling "A Brief History of Time," and several other books, Hawking delivered a 45-minute lecture on physics and cosmology at a dinner Wednesday night in Orlando, explaining how he got his idea for resolving a cryptic question about the detection of black holes.
"My work on black holes began with a 'eureka' moment in 1970 a few days after the birth of my daughter, Lucy," Hawking said.
