There’s a new name on the list of would-be passengers who want to go into space. Pat Piper has details,
World-famous physicist Stephen Hawking plans to join an eager lineup of customers for Virgin Galactic suborbital flights. In an interview on Monday with the British program Good Morning Britain, the physicist and cosmologist said that he’s been wanting to visit space ever since he experienced a weightless flight aboard a plane that flies parabolic loops to simulate zero gravity. He was likely referring to a Zero Gravity Corp. flight in 2007 aboard a specially-modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft called G-FORCE ONE. “My ambition is to fly into space,” remarked Hawking, speaking with a computerized voice from his wheelchair. “I thought no one would take me, but [Virgin founder] Richard Branson has offered me a seat on Virgin Galactic.” Virgin Galactic has been aiming to fly tourists into space for more than a decade, aboard SpaceShipTwo. The flight plan calls for SpaceShipTwo to be lifted to 50,000 feet aboard a carrier ship, called WhiteKnightTwo, before being released. SpaceShipTwo will then rocket into suborbital space, long enough for tourists to experience five minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.