In a historic flight for space accessibility, German engineer Michaela Benthaus has become the world’s first wheelchair user to travel to space, fulfilling a dream she pursued after a mountain biking accident left her with a spinal cord injury seven years ago.
Benthaus, who works at the European Space Agency, launched with Blue Origin on Saturday from Texas alongside five others. The crew reached the edge of space aboard the New Shepard rocket in a flight lasting about 10 minutes.
“It was the coolest experience!” Benthaus said in a post-landing video, praising both the view of Earth and the sensation of microgravity.
Her journey began with an online message to retired SpaceX manager Hans Koenigsmann, asking if someone with her disability could still become an astronaut.
Koenigsmann helped organize the mission and accompanied her on the flight, strapped nearby to offer assistance. “It’s her drive that kind of convinced me I should do that, too,” he said.
Benthaus transferred herself from her wheelchair into the capsule using a specially designed bench. Blue Origin added ground support equipment to facilitate her entry and exit, calling her flight “particularly meaningful” in a statement that emphasized “space is for everyone.”
The mission marks Blue Origin’s 16th suborbital tourism launch and comes amid fierce competition among private space companies.
While the cost of Benthaus’s flight was not disclosed, the company has previously carried high-profile passengers, including pop star Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
For Benthaus, the flight was both a personal milestone and a reminder of the barriers that remain. “I’ve really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is,” she reflected. Her journey now stands as a landmark step toward a more inclusive era of human spaceflight.
By James Kisoo
