|
Interesting
facts
about
Stephen
Hawking
regardin
ET's and
space
At a
George
Washington
University
lecture
in
honour
of
NASA's
fiftieth
anniversary,
Professor
Hawking
theorized
on the
existence
of
extraterrestrial
life,
believing
that
"primitive
life is
very
common
and
intelligent
life is
fairly
rare."
At the
fiftieth
anniversary
of
NASA
in 2008,
Hawking
gave a
keynote
speech
on the
final
frontier
exhorting
and
inspiring
the
space
technology
community
on why
we (the
human
race)
explore
space.
At the
celebration
of his
sixty-fifth
birthday
on 8
January
2007,
Hawking
announced
his plan
to take
a
zero-gravity
flight
in 2007
to
prepare
for a
sub-orbital
spaceflight
in 2009
on
Virgin
Galactic's
space
service.
Billionaire
Richard
Branson
pledged
to pay
all
expenses
for the
latter,
costing
an
estimated
£100,000.
Stephen
Hawking's
zero-gravity
flight
in a "Vomit
Comet"
of
Zero
Gravity
Corporation,
during
which he
experienced
weightlessness
eight
times,
took
place on
26 April
2007.
He
became
the
first
quadriplegic
to float
in
zero-gravity.
This was
the
first
time in
forty
years
that he
moved
freely,
without
his
wheelchair.
The fee
is
normally
US$3,750
for
10–15
plunges,
but
Hawking
was not
required
to pay
the fee.
A bit of
a
futurist,
Hawking
was
quoted
before
the
flight
saying:
"Many
people
have
asked me
why I am
taking
this
flight.
I am
doing it
for many
reasons.
First of
all, I
believe
that
life on
Earth is
at an
ever-increasing
risk of
being
wiped
out by a
disaster
such as
sudden
nuclear
war, a
genetically
engineered
virus,
or other
dangers.
I think
the
human
race has
no
future
if it
doesn't
go into
space. I
therefore
want to
encourage
public
interest
in
space." |
