The famous British physicist Stephen Hawking has announced that he is going to go into space on a Virgin Galactic ship. According to the electronic version of the Daily Mail newspaper, he said this in an interview with the Good Morning Britain program, which will be aired on ITV on Monday, March 20, at 06:00 am British time (09:00 Moscow time).
When asked what happiness was for him, the scientist replied that three children brought him the greatest joy. “And I can tell you what will make me happy - travel into space. I thought that no one would take me there, but Richard Branson (the owner of the Virgin Group, which includes Virgin Galactic - "Lenta.ru") offered me a place in Virgin Galactic, and I immediately answered "yes", "he said. …
At the end of September 2016, The Guardian published an excerpt from the book of the researcher of black holes "How to create a spaceship", in which the author called on humanity to conquer other planets. Hawking believes that life on Earth is in ever-growing danger and could be destroyed by natural or man-made disaster.
Developed by Scaled Composites LLC and built by The Spaceship Company for Virgin Galactic, the glider is designed for tourist flights up to an altitude of about one hundred kilometers: to the boundary of the Earth's atmosphere with space, but without entering its orbit. The cost of travel for each of the six passengers will be about 200 thousand dollars. About 800 people have already booked tickets, including, in addition to Hawking, actress Angelina Jolie and singer Lady Gaga.
Stephen Hawking is known for his work on cosmology and the popularization of science. He was the first to publish an article on the possibility of black holes to evaporate. In 1963, while studying at Oxford University, he was diagnosed with a rare chronic disease of the central nervous system - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Almost 20 years after a tracheostomy, the scientist lost the ability to speak and has been using a speech synthesizer ever since. Since 1997 he has been using a wheelchair with a computer. A serious illness did not prevent Hawking from becoming one of the most famous modern theoretical physicists and arranging his personal life. On January 8, he turned 75 years old.