Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Hawking takes flight

Professor Stephen Hawking has realised a lifelong ambition - to fly in space. He went in a specially modified Boeing 727 which took off and landed from the space shuttle's runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The plane did parabolic manoeuvres (big ascents and descents - commonly know as 'vomit comets') and it is during these that the feeling of weightlessness occurs. The flight was with US firm Zero Gravity which reportedly waived the usal fee ($US3,750) for the Professor. So, the question is - is it worth that money to find out if my Fisher Space Pen really will write in space (or maybe that's what the Professor was trying to find out).

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