The eldest of Frank and Isobel Hawking's four children, Stephen William Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo—long a source of pride for the noted physicist—on January 8, 1942. He was born in Oxford, England, into a family of thinkers. His Scottish mother, Isobel Hawking, had earned her way into Oxford University in the 1930s—a time when few women thought of going to college—making her one of the college's first female students. His father, Frank Hawking, another Oxford graduate, was a respected medical researcher with a specialty in tropical diseases. Stephen Hawking's birth came at an inopportune time for his parents, who didn't have much money. The political climate was also tense, as England was dealing with World War II and the onslaught of German bombs. In an effort to seek a safer place to have their first child, Frank moved his pregnant wife from their London home to Oxford. The Hawking’s would go on to have two other children, Mary (1943) and Philippa (1947). A second son, Edward, was adopted in 1956. In 1963 Hawking’s had many tests done on his well being and found that he had ALS and the doctors said he would die in 2 years. Hawking's quest for big answers to big questions includes his own personal desire to travel into space. In 2007, at the age of 65, Hawking made an important step toward space travel. While visiting the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, he was given the opportunity to experience an environment without gravity. He has also gone on to do many more things which I will go into detail about in this essay.…