Blue Origin: Engineer becomes first wheelchair user to go to space

An engineer from Germany has become the world’s first wheelchair user to go into space.

Michaela Benthaus, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, had reached out to a retired space engineer online to see if her dream of being an astronaut was still possible.

He then helped organise the historic 10-minute flight with Blue Origin, the space tourism company founded by Jeff Bezos.

Ms Benthaus and five others blasted off from Texas on Saturday and reached a point just above the so-called “boundary” of space, known as the Kármán line.

“It was the coolest experience!” she said after landing in a video shared by Blue Origin.

“I didn’t only like the view and the micro-gravity, but I also liked going up. That was so cool, every stage of going up.”

New Shepard, Blue Origin’s reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle, took off from the company’s Texas launch pad at 14:15 GMT.

Ms Benthaus, who works at the European Space Agency, said she had “really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is” for people with disabilities following her accident.

She made her own way from her wheelchair into the capsule, using a bench extending from the hatch.

Hans Koenigsmann, the retired SpaceX manager who helped organise the trip, was strapped in nearby to offer assistance during the flight if needed.

“I met Hans the first time online,” Ms Benthaus said. “I just asked him, like, you know, you worked for so long for SpaceX, do you think that people like me can be astronauts?”

Koenigsmann said Ms Benthaus “basically inspired me to do this. “It’s her drive that kind of convinced me I should do that, too, and to just experience something that I’ve seen from the outside for a long time,” he said.

Blue Origin said ground support equipment was added to help Ms Benthaus enter and exit the capsule.

“Michi’s flight is particularly meaningful, demonstrating that space is for everyone, and we are proud to help her achieve this dream,” Phil Joyce, senior vice-president of New Shepard, said.

The cost of the mission, which is the 16th suborbital space tourism launch carried out by Blue Origin, has not been revealed.

The company has taken dozens of tourists to space. In April, pop star Katy Perry, Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King were among six women blasted into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket for a flight that lasted about 11 minutes.

The high-profile flights come at a time when private space companies are fiercely competing for dominance in space tourism.