Stephen Hawking plans prelude to the ride of his life

The British cosmologist is to take a zero-gravity ride out of Cape Canaveral on a so-called vomit comet, offering him a chance to get away from his wheelchair.
The New York Times

The story "Stephen Hawking plans prelude to the ride of his life" published March 1, 2007 at 9:25 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Grrumpy]

Go, Stephen, GO!

Stephen Hawking is the epitome of an indomitable human spirit!

[azareus]

Hear the speech by Dr. Hawking

Thanks to technology, here's Dr. Hawking's speech along with some relevant pictures of the time as a backdrop.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://blog.cognitivelabs.com/2007/03/stephen-hawking-set-for-zero-g-flight.html" target="_newWindow">http://blog.cognitivelabs.com/2007/03/stephen-hawking-set-for-zero-g-flight.html</a>

I can't wait to hear his interview when he gets back. One of the issues with spacetravel is we don't send any great minds or poets into space - mostly just bureaucrats...