Stephen Hawking spaceflight update:

I certainly hope all goes well for Hawking.

Hawking: Weightlessness will be 'bliss'

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 24, 10:51 PM ET

ORLANDO, Fla. - Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who has been confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life, expects weightlessness to feel like "bliss" when he goes on a "zero-gravity" flight Thursday aboard a refitted jet.

"For someone like me whose muscles don't work very well, it will be bliss to be weightless," Hawking told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

Hawking, 65, who has Lou Gehrig's disease, will be the first person with a disability to fly on the one of the flights offered by Zero Gravity Corp., a space tourism company.

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