As we previously reported he would, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking got a taste of weightlessness yesterday courtesy of a Zero Gravity Corporation modified 727. According to MSNBC.com, “the jet carrying Hawking, a handful of his physicians and nurses, and dozens of others first flew up to 24,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean off Florida. Nurses lifted Hawking and carried him to the front of the jet, where they placed him on his back atop a special foam pillow.” The 727 did eight parabolic profiles.
I had a chance for a ride in NASA’s “Vomit Comit,” a modified 707, a few years back. It was an interesting experience. On this particular flight, the airplane flew 40 parabolas (50 degrees nose up to 30 degrees nose down) that afforded just less than 30 seconds of zero G each. As my host, a Navy SEAL and mission specialist, predicted, the engineers and assorted NASA staffers throughout the padded fuselage started out very enthusiasically, spinning each other and laughing. But by the tenth parabola, they were all airsick. By the fortieth they would have given their firstborns to get off that damn jet. But once we got back on the ground all agreed the experience was worth the nausea — sort of like a winging ceremony used to be back in the day.
– Ward
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Damn, good for Dr. Hawking. He gets all the chicks too, bet you wish you had a computer gen voice that said “Hey baby, wanna come back to my place and try out the Newton Chair of Physics?”
Huzzah!
Is that guy in the bottom right picture going commando?
Grandjester, from what I understand, you’re right.
I remember hearing back in the late 70s that before he knew he had ALS, he was kind of this party boy, skirt chaser and a lot of his profs were kind of unimpressed.
But all that had to change, and he turned into one very quick intellect.
OMG photoshop some pants on that dude. So, yeah hes wearin shorts, but its still not what i wanted to see when i read the article
Badass as he may be, flesh colored shorts just seem like a bad idea. Man, SEAL and astronaut, simply amazing.
Honestly… What is it with special operations guys and their short-short-short-shorts? (Known, at least among the combat controllers, as “Catch Me, F*** Me Shorts”)