U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong took "one small step for man" when he trod the moon's surface 37 years ago, Thursday world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking took a "giant leap" for Earth's physically disabled when he experienced eight rounds of weightlessness in what he saw as the first step in a personal goal to travel in space.

"It was amazing," Hawking told reporters afterward, using his well-known computerized voice. "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.

"I have long wanted to go into space, and the zero-gravity flight is the first step toward space travel," he said prior to the flight.

Hawking is one of the globe's best-known scientists because of his best-selling works on the mysteries of black holes and the origins of the universe, and because of his increasing disability due to a degenerative nerve disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He is almost completely paralyzed and can communicate only via facial gestures and a gesture-controlled computer system.

Thursday's flight was a test run find out if Hawking is capable of a rocket-powered journey to the edge of outer space, perhaps aboard the spaceship now being developed for Virgin Galactic. That craft is due to enter service in 2009 or so, and taking such a flight would check off what Hawking has said is his "next goal."

Hawking's host, Zero Gravity Corp. co-founder and chief executive officer Peter Diamandis, said before the flight he'd claim success if Hawking had just a single half-minute float in weightlessness aboard the company's specially modified Boeing 727 jet. It turned out that Hawking took eight turns with ease.

"He would have flown more if we let him," said Noah McMahon, one of Hawking's coaches as well as Zero Gravity's chief marketing officer. "He was all smiles all the time."

Zero Gravity had originally planned to bring Hawking back to NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility here after six ups-and-downs.

"We negotiated and agreed to do two more," Diamandis told reporters jokingly. After the landing, Hawking's fellow fliers gave him a round of applause.

Hawking's performance boded well for more ambitious tests, and that's not just according to the professor. Diamandis said Hawking weathered the flight better than his physicians had expected. He noted that the four minutes Hawking spent in weightlessness was about as much time as he would spend in zero-G during a suborbital space flight.

Source:Xinhua/Agencies