Hawking: Humanity's Future Is in Space

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.

Hawking realized he could apply to black holes some theories he had developed to explain other puzzling states of matter and energy, particularly ones where the laws of physics seem to break down.

Of all the mysteries of the universe, however, Hawking said he would most like to understand how it is that we are here.

"The universe is so big, so smooth and yet just right enough for us to exist," Hawking said.

"I'm not religious in the normal sense," he added later. "I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws," he said.

Hawking tested at least one of those laws on Thursday, defying gravity — for a moment anyway — by floating during one or more parabolic maneuvers aboard a specially modified Boeing 727. The ride is courtesy of Florida-based Zero Gravity Corp., which offers a commercial service similar to what NASA uses to train astronauts and test equipment prior to spaceflight.

Hawking hopes to reach the final frontier himself and has a reservation to fly aboard the commercial suborbital spaceship being developed by Virgin Atlantic Airways' offshoot, Virgin Galactic. Service is expected to begin in 2009.