CNN-Hawking Goes Weightless
[WORDS}
♧ Stephen Hawking
♧ weighty : a. 무거운, 무게 있는, 비중이 큰, 세력 있는
♧ astrophysicist : n. 천체 물리학자
♧ popularize : v. 대중화/통속화시키다
♧ slip : v. 미끄러지듯 빠져나가다
♧ bond : n. 결박, 굴레, 계약, 약정
♧ gravity : n. 중력, 인력
♧ Ameotrophic lateral sclerosis = Lou Garrick's Disease : 위축성 측삭 경화증
♧ paralyze : v. 마비시키다, 무력하게 만들다
♧ mistaking : n. 착오, 잘못, 오해, 착각
♧ float : v. 뜨다, 표류/부류하다
♧ rig : v. 장비/삭구를 갖추다, 장비하다, 채비하다
♧ Zero G
♧ astronaut : n. 우주비행사
♧ spurt : n. 일 순간, 스퍼트, 급성장, 역주
♧ steep : a. 가파른, 경사가 급한, 가격 등이 터무니 없는
♧ padded : a. 다치지 않게 벽/바닥에 패드를 댄
♧ weightlessness : n. 무중력 상태
♧ savor : v. 감상하다, 맛 보다
♧ insight : n. 통찰력, 간파력, 안식
♧ defy : v. 무시하다, 도전하다
♧ the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Stephen Hawking was waiting for this not so weighty moment for years. The brilliant astrophysicist and best-selling popularizer of science slipping the bonds of gravity after nearly four decades in a wheelchair.
"It was amazing."
Hawking suffers from Ameotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Garrick's Disease. He is almost totally paralyzed, unable to speak without computerized assistance, but there was no mistaking his enthusiasm as he floated free.
"Professor Hawking reached for the sky and he touched the heavens today. And the best thing is, if someone like he can go, all of you can go as well."
He got a free ride on a specially rigged 727, flown by a company called Zero G, which offers astronaut-style thrills to anyone willing and able to pay $3500. The plane flies a wild roller coaster pattern, giving passengers 30-second spurts of weightlessness, which I got a chance to experience a few years ago. Hawking and his doctors were most worried about the steep climb after the free fall, where passengers suddenly get pressed to the padded floor at gravity times two. But he flew and floated without a worry.
"The zero G part was wonderful and the high G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come."
He enjoyed eight spurts of weightlessness, about four minutes in all - a brief moment in time to savor for a man who gave the world new insights into gravity, and now has defied it.
Miles O'Brien, CNN at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.