Stephen Hawking soars weightlessly
Apr 27, 2007
Mike Schneider Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.–Free of his wheelchair and tethered only to heart rate and blood pressure monitors, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking yesterday fulfilled a dream of floating weightless on a zero-gravity jet, a step he hopes leads to further space adventures.

"It was amazing," Hawking said after the flight, which took off from the space shuttle's runway at the Kennedy Space Center.

The modified jet, named G-Force One but nicknamed the vomit comet, carried Hawking, his four doctors and two nurses, and dozens of other passengers up to 7,200 metres over the Atlantic off the coast of Florida.

Hawking's nurses lifted him up and carried him to the front of the jet, where they placed him atop a special foam pillow.

The jet then climbed to around 9,600 metres and made a parabolic dive back to 7, 200 metres, allowing Hawking and the other passengers to experience weightlessness for about 25 seconds. the rest