US Edition Prof Stephen Hawking is to escape the confines of his wheelchair and experience weightlessness on a zero gravity flight.
The world's best-known scientist is set to go into space in what astronauts call the "vomit comet" - a flight which renders people temporarily weightless.
He will be the first person with a disability to fly on one of the flights offered by Zero Gravity Corp., a space tourism company.
"I have wanted to fly in space all of my life," Hawking told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. "For someone like me whose muscles don't work very well, it will be bliss to be weightless."
Unable to talk or move his hands and legs, Hawking can only make tiny facial expressions using the muscles around his eyes, eyebrows, cheek and mouth to communicate. Otherwise, he relies on a computer to talk for him in a synthesized voice.
Flying from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the modified jet creates the experience of microgravity during 25-second plunges over the Atlantic Ocean.
The jet's interior is padded to protect the weightless fliers and equipped with cameras to record their adventure.
Normally, the plane conducts 10 to 15 plunges for its passengers who pay $3,750 (£1,734) for the ride, although that fee has been waived for Hawking.
After the jet has reached its proper altitude, Hawking's assistants will lift him out of his chair and lay him on his back in the front of the cabin for the first plunge.
He will not have his wheelchair and talking computer on the jet with him, although his assistant will bring a laptop and a card with the letters of the alphabet in case Hawking wants to communicate beyond facial expressions.
"We consider ... having him weightless for 25 seconds is a successful mission," said Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of Zero Gravity. "If we do more than one, fantastic."
Prof Hawking is the author of A Brief History of Time — which has sold 10 million copies — and is currently writing two books.