A few days before James Doohan’s remains were rocketed into space, Stephen Hawking experienced weightlessness … eight times.

Hawking is a celebrated British astrophysicist, black-hole theorist and author of A Brief History of Time. Now 65 years old, he is paralyzed by Lou Gehrig’s disease.

In side of a Boeing 727, Hawking and his caretakers rode the plane as it made 8 arcs in the sky, each arc offering 25 seconds of weightlessness.

Like Doohan, Hawking also has a Star Trek connection. He played a hologram of himself on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Article: Famed physicist Hawking takes first step toward space