Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking savored weightlessness, flipping in the air after years of being able to make only tiny facial movements. But he hopes it is only the appetizer.
"Space, here I come," Hawking said on Thursday after going on a two-hour jet flight that creates 25-second bursts of weightlessness for its passengers by making parabolic plunges.
The jet made eight dives for Hawking, his physicians and nurses and two dozen others. During two of the plunges he made two flips like "a gold-medal gymnast," said Peter Diamandis, chairman of Zero Gravity Corp, the company that owns the jet.
"It was amazing," Hawking said. "I could have gone on and on."
Hawking, a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge who has done groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe, has the paralyzing disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
The 65-year-old was the first person with a disability to experience the flight by Zero Gravity, which has flown about 2,700 people out of Florida since late 2004 and began offering the flights in Las Vegas this week.
Hawking hopes the zero-gravity flight is a step toward going on a suborbital flight, which may be offered by private space companies by the end of the decade.
"It's a test to see how well he can handle the g-forces that would be necessary in order to leave the atmosphere," said Sam Blackburn, Hawking's assistant. "That is very much one of the major purposes of this flight."
Unable to talk or move his hands and legs, Hawking can only make tiny facial expressions using the muscles around his eyes, eyebrows, cheek and mouth. He uses a computer attached to his wheelchair to talk for him in a synthesized voice by choosing words on a computer screen through an infrared sensor on a headpiece that detects motion in his cheek.
Hawking's personal physicians were on hand to make sure nothing went wrong.
The Zero Gravity jet flew up to 7,315m over the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, then climbed to around 9,754m and made dives back to 7,315m.
Normally, the plane conducts 10 to 15 plunges for its passengers, who pay US$3,750 for the ride, although that fee was waived for Hawking.
Hawking said he had an ulterior motive for going on the flight. He said he wants to increase public interest in space since he believes humans' survival depends on going into space.
"I think life on Earth is at an increased risk of being wiped out by disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war or a genetically engineered virus or other dangers," Hawking said. "I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space."
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