Rocket man


Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning

Even if Lance Bass was still set to become the first liberated and happy gay boy band singer in space, surely he'd see the socially utilitarian benefits of yielding his spot in the space tourism queue in favor of this guy.

Of course, this assumes that (one) Mr. Hawking survives his training ride aboard the vomit comet, and (two) that a really rich guy is willing to foot the bill for the whole thing.

Prof Stephen Hawking is planning a space flight. The world's best-known scientist, who is 65 today, told The Daily Telegraph: "This year I'm planning a zero-gravity flight and to go into space in 2009."

A zero gravity flight is what astronauts call the "vomit comet", in which an aeroplane flies in such a way that people inside are temporarily weightless.

Prof Hawking's next step towards the cosmos then depends on the Virgin Galactic space tourism plans of Sir Richard Branson, whose SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers into a low Earth orbit from 2008.

Maybe he and Bass could split the fare.

(Three...two...one...cross-posted!)


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