the next morning um Professor Hawking arrives uh we set up a press conference there’s press from around the world there are hundreds of cameras there uh we’re on this large Das that have been set up uh at Kennedy Space Center and uh Hawking steps up and he says listen and he’s doing this through his computer I’m doing this because I think the human race must go into space that if we don’t open the space Frontier we don’t have a future we have to become a multiplanetary species there are too many threats that are civilization ending that are potentially before us now I prefer the optimistic reasons for doing it versus dystopian reasons but you know let’s built in suspenders here and at the end of that uh I announced to the world that we’re going to go and fly one parabolic Arc we’re going to give this this world’s expert in gravity 30
[00:01:02] seconds and that would be amazing and ultimately we had a plan that said if it goes well we’ll do two or three but before we go on this flight uh because it’s going to be an open channel of communication between the airplane and air traffic control we set up a bunch of code signals and uh as we’re flying the FAA gives us this block of airspace that’s 10,000 uh ft uh High between uh 2300 and 3,300 ,000 ft and 100 miles long and 10 miles wide and we’re the only airplane in that block of airspace and I set up with my head of operations three code signals one everything’s great two uh he’s injured and we’re coming back or three the worst of all cases right and we go up uh we set it up I look towards
[00:02:02] we have at I’m at stepen Hawkings head as he’s lying down and we’re flying straight and level at the other end at his feet is uh Byron lenberg two time astronaut uh and co-founder of zerog and I look to the three doctors the emergency room doctors who are on this plane with us they’ve got their equipment there they’re monitoring his heart rate his breathing rate his blood pressure his his partial pressure of oxygen and they’re like thumbs up all looks good we talk to the pilot and say okay let’s go for the first par and the way this works we’re at about 2300 uh 23,000 ft and the going to a slight dive to pick up velocity and you can feel going into a dive and then the pilot pulls up and to about 45 50° nose high and as pulling up you feel yourself getting heavier and heavier and heavier and Professor Hawkings body is pushing down against the floor now we’re inside
[00:03:01] this airplane that has no seats for the first 100 feet it’s all foam padding on the ground foam padding above so it’s safe it’s well lit there are 30 seats in the back that everyone who had you know donated to this flight is in the Back strapped in watching this and the cameras are there click click click and Professor Hawking as we come out of the top of this pullup and push over to the top Byron and I gently lift Professor Hawking into Zer G and then we pulled away and we’re watching him now Professor Hawking has very few muscles he can he can work none in his arms and legs um a tiny few in his mouth and in his eyes and for the first time ever I see him smile and there’s this smile that looks like the smile of a child and it was extraordinary it was captured on on film and as we start coming out of
[00:04:03] this parabolic Arc uh Byron and I slowly take him back down and we go into straight level flight again and I turn to the uh to the Physicians and I say you know are we good to go and they say yes he was perfect you’re good on the second and third paraba so we do a second and third Parabola and uh it’s you know each time he’s floating by himself longer and longer sort of like just having this you know the best I could describe as a eting grin on his face and we come back down and they’re like he’s Rock Solid he’s doing amazing I said okay let’s do a few more now we had promised just one Parabola and so I turned to his two nurses who are there and who had been talking with him and said what do you think should we continue because they said yes absolutely and in fact Professor Hawking wants you to you know twirl him around Zer G and I’m like I’m like at this
[00:05:02] point I don’t know if they’re like just trying to get back at him for something or they really had had that conversation I said okay well let’s do this and so um the video footage uh which we should find uh has us basically lifting him up and spinning him around gently in zero g so we ended up doing eight parabis with Professor Hawking um we get back you know the code signal is he’s great did awesome and we land and uh you know he had not wanted to do a post PR post a post-flight press conference because he thought he’d be too tired for this and he was just so jazzed uh and he said it was most extraordinary experience of his life and I remember I’ve gotten to know Lucy Hawking his daughter very well and she said it was one of the highlights of his life uh and it most definitely was for me and I’m so happy we didn’t kill Stephen Hawking