NCSoft Again Reminds Everyone Garriott Joined Hawking On "Vomit Comet"

NCSoft, busy hyping the upcoming Tabula Rasa, issued another press release today to talk about Executive Producer Richard Garriott's recent trip to the stars with legendary physicist Stephen Hawking. The two rode on something affectionately known as the "vomit comet", a converted jet airplane that frees passangers from the shackles of gravity in a scene similar to being in space.

NCsoft's Richard Garriott Reaches For The Stars

NCsoft Executive Producer Richard Garriott Joins Stephen Hawking On Zero-G Vomit Comet

Thursday 3rd May/...Legendary video game developer Richard Garriott, Executive Producer at Destination Games and NCsoft, joined world-renowned astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking on a converted aeroplane nicknamed the Vomit Comet to experience zero gravity at the edge of space.

Garriott joined Hawking, his entourage of assistants and roughly 25 other passengers on the converted Boeing 727 as it ascended to 25,000 feet from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and proceeded to carve gigantic parabolic arcs in the sky. The plane, which is usually reserved for trainee astronauts, unshackled the passengers from gravity for approximately 25 seconds at a time by executing a series of climbs at 45 degrees and dips at 30 degrees.

This was the fourth trip to the edge of space for Garriott, who is an investor in Zero Gravity Corp - the company that operates the Vomit Comet experience. The journey was regarded as a huge success and upon returning to terra firma, Garriott posted an online account of his experience:

http://www.playtr.com/news/archives/2007/04/richard_garriot_6.html

Garriott is currently working on the epic sci-fi RPG, Tabula Rasa - a massively multiplayer online game that allows players to explore lush forest planets, volcanic moons, and exotic alien civilizations, to face off against powerful alien soldiers, armoured mechanoids, and vicious predators. Tabula Rasa combines a vast, persistent game world and ongoing storyline with fast-paced action, resulting in a striking new approach to the design of multiplayer online games.