Michaela Benthaus, a 33-year-old German engineer who was left paraplegic after a cycling accident seven years ago, has become the first person in a wheelchair to travel to space. He flew with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on a 10-minute mission.
A paraplegic German engineer embarked this Saturday on a space flight with five other passengers, leaving her wheelchair behind to float in space while contemplating the Earth from above.
A mountain biking accident left her seriously injured seven years ago.
Michaela Benthaus has now become the first wheelchair user in space, launching from West Texas with Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin.
The woman was accompanied by a retired SpaceX executive, also born in Germany, Hans Koenigsmann, who helped organize and, together with Blue Origin, sponsored her trip.
Ticket prices were not disclosed.
Benthaus said he laughed throughout the ascent – the capsule flew more than 105 kilometers – and tried to turn itself upside down in space.
“It was the most incredible experience,” he said, after landing, quoted by the Associated Press.
10-minute flight from Texas
The 10-minute spaceflight required only minor adjustments to accommodate Benthaus, according to the company. That’s because the New Shepard autonomous capsule was designed with accessibility in mind, “making it more accessible to a wider range of people than traditional space flights,” explained Jake Mills, a Blue Origin engineer who trained the crew and assisted them on launch day.
Second Benthauus, a added a patient transfer board so it could slide between the capsule’s hatch and its seat. The recovery team also rolled out a mat on the desert floor after landing, providing immediate access to his wheelchair.
The 33-year-old woman, who is part of the European Space Agency’s postgraduate internship program in the Netherlands, experienced fragments of weightlessness during a parabolic plane flight leaving Houston in 2022.
Less than two years later, he participated in a two-week simulated space mission in Poland.
Stressing that “you should never give up on your dreams”, Benthaus said she was determined to do as much as she could on her own. Its goal is not only to make space accessible to people with disabilities, but also to improve accessibility on Earth.
