- Blue Origin successfully carried out the NS-37 mission with the New Shepard suborbital rocket.
- The flight included six passengers, including disabled Michaela Benthaus.
- The rocket was launched from a base near the city of Van Horn in Texas.
- The capsule reached Kármán’s boundary and landed safely in the desert.
- Benthaus is the first person with paraplegia to travel into space.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company on Friday made a successful flight of the New Shepard suborbital rocket. NS-37 mission with six space tourists on board incl disabled engineer of the European Space Agency (ESA) from Germany, Michaela Benthaus (33) took off from the base near the city of Van Horn in Texas at 08:15. local time (15:15 CET). The DPA and AFP agencies reported on it.
A small, fully automated rocket took off vertically and a capsule with tourists separated from it in flight. During the more than 10-minute flight, the capsule briefly crossed the Kármán boundary, considered the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. Subsequently, she began to slowly descend to the earth’s surface and landed back in the Texas desert with the help of parachutes.
It was the 16th flight with a crew of Blue Origin, which has been in the space tourism segment for years, although it does not disclose the prices of its flights. Her customers were dozens of people, including pop singer Katy Perry and actor William Shatner, who played the legendary Captain Kirk in the sci-fi series Star Trek.
Benthaus injured her spinal cord in a mountain bike accident in 2018 and has to use a wheelchair. He is the first person with paraplegia, complete bilateral paralysis of the lower limbs, to go into space. After landing, she said the flight was “the most amazing experience” of her life so far. “I think you should never give up on your dreams. Even if there is only a small chance that they will come true,” she added.
In addition to Benthaus, her compatriot and ESA colleague Hans Königsmann and four American businessmen were also in the space capsule. The first attempt to start on Thursday was canceled less than a minute before the scheduled start of the engines. According to Blue Origin, there was a problem with the pre-flight checks. Blue Origin’s rocket flights for wealthy customers are sometimes criticized for their limited scientific value, impact on the environment and climate, and their elitist nature.
