spacetoday.net: Stephen Hawking passes away

Posted: Sun, Mar 18, 2018, 11:21 AM ET (1521 GMT)
Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist who explained black holes and later became a space exploration advocate, has died. Hawking passed away early Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, England, at the age of 76. Hawking's studies of black holes revolutionized astronomy and he became a figure in popular culture, including writing the bestselling book A Brief History of Time. Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, while a graduate student in the 1960s, but defied prognoses that he had only a few years to live. Hawking in his later years was an advocate of human spaceflight and settlement beyond Earth as a means for the species to survive. He flew on a Zero-G aircraft flight in 2007 and was offered a free ticket on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle.