In a groundbreaking achievement, Michaela “Michi” Benthaus, a 33-year-old German aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency (ESA), became the world’s first wheelchair user to travel to space on Saturday, December 20, 2025.
Kabul 24: She flew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket (mission NS-37) from the company’s launch site in West Texas, reaching over 100 kilometers (the Kármán line, the recognized boundary of space) and experiencing several minutes of weightlessness during the 10-minute suborbital flight.Benthaus suffered a spinal cord injury in a 2018 mountain biking accident, leaving her paraplegic and reliant on a wheelchair.
Despite this, her dream of spaceflight persisted. She contacted Hans Koenigsmann, a retired SpaceX engineer (also German-born), online to ask if people with disabilities like hers could become astronauts.
Koenigsmann, who joined her on the flight, helped organize and sponsor the trip with Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos. Four other passengers accompanied them.
Blue Origin made minor adjustments for accessibility, including a transfer bench at the capsule hatch and ground equipment like an elevator on the launch tower—no changes to the vehicle itself were needed, as it was designed with broader accessibility in mind.
Benthaus transferred independently from her wheelchair into the capsule, with Koenigsmann seated nearby for potential assistance.
After landing, she exclaimed: “It was the coolest experience ever!” She laughed throughout the ascent and even tried flipping upside down in microgravity.
Benthaus, an ambassador for AstroAccess (a project promoting disability inclusion in space exploration), highlighted how her accident revealed the world’s inaccessibility for disabled people.
Her flight demonstrates that space can be for everyone, inspiring broader inclusion in spaceflight and on Earth.This was Blue Origin’s 16th crewed mission, proving suborbital tourism’s potential for diverse participants and paving the way for future disabled astronauts.
