Michaela “Michi” Benthaus, a 33-year-old German engineer, became the first wheelchair user to travel aboard Blue Origin’s “New Shepard,” joining five other passengers on a 10-minute trip to the edge of space last month.
Launching from West Texas, the rocket climbed more than 65 miles above Earth, giving the crew several minutes of weightlessness. Benthaus said she laughed through most of the ascent and even attempted a flip in microgravity. “It was the coolest experience,” she reported.
Paralyzed for seven years after a biking accident, Benthaus had long assumed spaceflight was out of reach. “There is like no history of people with disabilities flying to space,” she told reporters before the launch. But when retired SpaceX executive Hans Koenigsmann agreed to sponsor and accompany her, the opportunity opened.
Because the “New Shepard” was engineered to be accessible, Blue Origin only had to make minor adjustments to accommodate Benthaus. For the mission, engineers added a transfer board for independent seating, laid a carpeted path over the desert ground, and used the tower elevator for boarding.
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