Famed physicist Stephen Hawking, advocate of humanity migrating into the solar system and beyond, will soon get his first experience with microgravity in a Boeing 727 on a parabolic flight:
"To be allowed to carry Prof. Hawking, Zero-G needed to obtain a unique certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)–no one has ever flown a disabled person in weightlessness before. Prof. Hawking will be accompanied by a team of three doctors and at least two of the Cambridge professor’s experienced caregivers."
I had the chance for a similar flight out of Houston a few years before I retired, but passed on it. I get rather seriously seasick, and sometimes airsick, and while I would jump at an opportunity to go into space, a minute or less in microgravity (bookended by a stomach-churning 1.8 Gs) hardly seems worth it. Though it does look like fun.
UPDATE Post-flight, Hawking tells the BBC: "It was amazing.The zero-G part was wonderful and the higher-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!"
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 