User:Joan kingston/JK sandbox

edit to Hawking page

At the 50th Anniversary of NASA, Hawking gave a keynote speech on the final frontier exhorting and inspiring the space technology community on why we (the human race) explore space.

At the celebration of his 65th birthday on 8 January, 2007, Hawking announced his plan to take a zero-gravity flight in 2007 to prepare for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009 on Virgin Galactic's space service. Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for the latter, costing an estimated £100,000. Stephen Hawking's zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet" of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times, took place on 26 April 2007. He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero-gravity. This was the first time in 40 years that he moved freely, without his wheelchair. The fee is normally US$3,750 for 10–15 plunges, but Hawking was not required to pay the fee. A bit of a futurist, Hawking was quoted before the flight saying:

Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.

Misc edits

Hi, what I envisioned would have been a page of annotated redirects somewhat similar in style to hawker, and Dyson, but of course different in contents. Here a student would find names of people, organizations or ideas for and against space. However, a second look into this topic among the WP pages finds it not feasible because the links seem to be mostly on the pros side leaving the cons side begging for info. I'd hope to hear some notable quote such as, "Why send all the money to Mars when we have so many problems on Planet Earth?" It's disappointing because I expect Wiki to be that bastion in neutrality. So much for an afternoon idea! Hope I didn’t waste too much of your time, but your opinion is valued.