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Stephen Hawking for space voyage

     London: Professor Stephen Hawking may have achieved what many people could not have even dreamt about, but now he wants to go where few men have gone before - outer space. On the occasion of his 65th birthday the acclaimed British physicist revealed his plans to travel into space. "This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

    A "zero-gravity flight" is one in which an aeroplane flies in such a way as to render its passengers temporarily weightless, mimicking the conditions in space. His next step towards the cosmos depends on the Virgin Galactic space tourism plans of Sir Richard Branson, whose SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers into a low Earth orbit from 2008. The craft will be launched at 50,000ft from a mothership and soar into space at around 360,000ft, reaching a speed of 2,500mph - more than three times the speed of sound. The scientist plans a quiet celebration of his birthday today with his family, and said he had no intention of retiring for the foreseeable future. "The retiring age in Cambridge is 67 but I shall continue working," he said. He is the author of 'A Brief History of Time' - which has sold 10 million copies - and is now busy writing two books. "My children's book, 'George's Secret Key To The Universe', will be published this October and my book 'The Grand Design' on the philosophy of science should be out next year," he said. For someone diagnosed with motor neurone disease at 21, and given just a few years to live, it is positively miraculous.
-Jan 8,  2007

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