Video: Stephen Hawking hopes for Virgin space trip

The former Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University said he wanted to make use of Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism business.

Hawking made the comments during a rare public appearance to launch a report into the treatment of children on long-term ventilation.

He said: “Being on a ventilator has not curbed my lifestyle.

“Since going on a ventilator full time I have been to Brussels, the Isle of Man, Geneva, Canada, California twice, and I hope to go into space with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.”

In April 2007 he experienced weightlessness aboard a specially modified aircraft. No date has been set for the first commercial flight on Virgin Galactic after the project was hit by delays.

Professor Hawking spoke at Portcullis House in Westminster using a computerised voice because of his motor neurone disease.

The wheelchair-bound scientist, now director of research at Cambridge’s Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, explained that he has been on full-time ventilation for the past 18 months, using a machine supplied by the NHS.

“It is a small box which fits easily on the back of my wheelchair,” 71-year-old Hawking said.

“It has an internal battery and you can plug in external batteries. This is important in case of power cuts and because it allows me to move around like now.”

He added: “It is possible to have quality of life on a ventilator.”

Breathe On UK, a charity that supports the families of children on long term ventilation, published a report to highlight the issues that they face.

The study, entitled PROMS (Patient Reported Outcome Measures), shows that the level of care is dependent on which postcode people live in.

The charity’s founder Victoria Townsend said: “Breathe On is there to make sure that those children have the best quality of life, even if it’s for a short time.

“Unless you have a charity like ours to continually bang on doors, to continually raise the profile, these children will fall under the radar and that’s what I am really scared of.”

Comedian Stephen Fry contributed to a short film which was shown at the event.