To Infinity and Beyond

Cape Canaveral, Fla. - Stephen Hawking, 65, has spent his life studying the outer reaches of space. Now he will soon experience weightlessness for himself.

The Cambridge University professor and author of the best-selling "A Brief History of Time" has been confined to a wheelchair for decades as a result of Lou Gehrig's disease. He will go on a weightless flight on April 26 from the Kennedy Space Center, according to officials at Zero Gravity Corporation.

"As someone who has studied gravity and black holes all of my life, I am excited to experience firsthand weightlessness and a zero-gravity environment," Hawking said in a statement.

Since 2004, the space tourism and entertainment company Zero Gravity Corporation has been flying the adventurous on a special 35-seat Boeing 727-200 that climbs to 32,000 feet, then takes an 8,000-foot plunge - allowing those on board to experience brief periods of weightlessness of less than a minute. Nearly 2,500 have taken such a flight via the company so far, according to The New York Times.

The going rate for the trip is usually $3,750, but the company is donating the flight to Hawking as a recognition of his work. It will also auction off two seats on the flight with him to charity.

Because of Hawking's relatively frail health - he was diagnosed with the disease in the 1960s and long ago lost the power of speech - extra care will be taken with him, including consultations with his doctors after each period of weightlessness. A full medical staff will accompany him.

"The key thing here is that weightless and personal spaceflight is something available to everyone, even someone like Prof. Hawking," Zero Gravity CEO Peter Diamandis told The Associated Press. "This something that almost everyone can now experience."

Diamandis said that assistants will be on board to help Hawking and said "giving the world's expert on gravity the opportunity to experience zero gravity" was too good to pass up.

For Hawking, who has already been to Antarctica and the White House and met the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, the zero-gravity flight is just a stop on his way to outer space.