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It’s an incredible opportunity that he never thought would come to fruition, but esteemed scientist Stephen Hawking is heading into outer space thanks to the generosity of Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic shuttle plans. According to The Independent UK, the revered cosmologist and theoretical physicist recently told Good Morning Britain that the trip was really happening after Branson called him to offer him the chance of a lifetime and Hawking said “yes immediately.”
Branson has been trying to send people up to space for the better part of a decade now, but his Virgin Galactic project and hopes have gone up in flames more than once over the years. Now, he is formally offering people a seat on the commercial trips on the shuttle so from the outside looking in it certainly looks like his confidence about the endeavor is higher than ever. Best known for his work on relativity and quantum mechanics, although he has contributed to breakthroughs in many areas of science, Hawking said of the possible trip “[my] three children have brought me great joy – and I can tell you what will make me happy, to travel in space.”
It’s good that Hawking could be getting the chance to go to space soon, since he himself has said that Brexit (which is being initiated as early as the middle of next week) could be the beginning of the end of the human race, and that humans probably won’t last longer than another millennium or so anyway. If Hawking is right, anybody that wants to explore space before Earth is no longer better get started soon.
(via The Independent UK)