Weightless

How I would love to be weightless. When I was younger, we lived very close to one of NASA's facilities. My family and I would go there and see all the space travel related things. I always got the feeling that it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to see the great unknown beyond our world.

I remember being about 8 years old and being fascinated with space, the stars, the universe. I also remember that it was one of the few constants in my life, and in hindsight, that is probably why I always had my head pointed to the heavens.

We moved a lot when I was a kid. Think military moving. Then double the frequency. That was my childhood. New home, new school, new friends every 6, 9 or 12 months. The only constant things in my life were the stars I saw (my mother had taught me all the major constellations by the time I was 5 or so) and my parents. The only comfort I had in a new home in a faraway place was that I could look out my window and find Orion's Belt, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper and other constellations.

I remember watching Challenger go up in flames when I was in elementary school (Kindergarten, I think--after that, I never saw another shuttle launch during school). It was such a tragedy, but I was fascinated by something so big that several people died and yet others would still want to do it. Sally Ride was my hero. When I started having health problems, I gave up on the dream of going to space. I thought about doing computer stuff for NASA but decided against it as my interests in computer science diverged from things that would be useful at NASA. Well, Stephen Hawking is giving hope for people with physical limitations and disabilities.

Hawking is now scheduled to go for a weightless airplane flight in April.

Go Stephen Go!