Stephen Hawking is a world famous physicist known for his extreme interest in space. Hawking, the author of the best seller, “A Brief History of Time,” has made numerous contributions to the world of science, including his in-depth study of black holes.

Hawking's enthusiasm for life outside of Earth has lead to his next undertaking, “My next goal is to go into space.” Hawking and the California-based Zero Gravity Corp. are working towards his goal by sending him aboard a jet to experience weightlessness and zero-gravity on April 26. The jet gives individuals the feeling of being weightless for about half a minute at a time. Passengers aboard the zero gravity flight float around in a padded compartment as if they were in space.

Why would this experience be so exceptional for Hawking? He's a quadriplegic that suffers from a neurological disorder that has left him almost entirely paralyzed throughout his entire body. After being diagnosed at the age of 21, doctors gave him a few years to live. Hawking, now 67, gets around in a high tech wheelchair and operates a blink controlled computer for communication. This venture would be the first of its kind for anyone in a wheelchair, and a new direction for the disability community.

Zero Gravity has already begun work with the Federal Aviation Administration on ways to make the trip more accessible to the disability community, especially wheelchair users. Depending on mobility, chair users may be accompanied by one or two assistants to help them into the “floating space.” Ideally, Hawking would use this procedure and begin to float freely throughout the space without any assistance.

The flight aboard the Zero Gravity's plane may be preparation for Hawking's real dream to take launch. Virgin Galactic and its founder, Richard Branson, are planning on launching space tours in 2009 and are working with Hawking to get him on board a tour.

Branson, through an e-mail, announced, “Obviously we would be honored to have Stephen fly with Virgin Galactic. We have a great medical team, and we are planning to have our chief medical officer sit down with Stephen, and we will do everything in our power to make his dream of going to space possible. But at the end of the day, it will be Stephen's decision, and it goes without saying we would be delighted to have him on board.”

“There are parallels to having the first woman in space or the first African-American in space,” the president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, Andrew Imparato, told MSNBC.com. “For somebody who has a significant disability to do that, pushing the boundaries of the human experience ... it can certainly expand the way people think about disabilities.”

Thought of the week:

“It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and reality of tomorrow.”

- Rocketeer Robert Goddard (1882-1945)

Amanda Derby is the housing advocate for Options for

Independence, located at 75 Genesee St., Auburn. She can be reached at Options at 255-3447