Who Is Michaela Benthaus? German Woman Engineer Scripts History Becomes 1St Wheelchair User To Space

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Michaela Benthaus, a German woman engineer, scripted history to become the first wheelchair user to blast into space. Michaela took a brief ride on a Blue Origin flight on Saturday.

Jeff Bezos ' space company launched its New Shepard suborbital mission from its site in Texas.

The small, fully automated rocket took off vertically, and the capsule carrying the tourists then detached in flight before gently descending back to the Texas desert, slowed by parachutes.

Also Read | Blue Origin to send first wheelchair user to space – How to watch live Who is Michaela Benthaus?

Michaela Benthaus is an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency.

Michaela, who suffered a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident and now uses a wheelchair, was among the passengers to cross the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space, during the approximately 10-minute flight.

“After my accident, I really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is” for people with disabilities, she said in a video released by the company.“If we want to be an inclusive society, we should be inclusive in every part, and not only in the parts we like to be.”

The 33-year-old, part of the European Space Agency's graduate trainee program in the Netherlands, has experienced snippets of weightlessness during a parabolic aeroplane flight out of Houston in 2022.

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Less than two years later, she took part in a two-week simulated space mission in Poland.

Ahead of the flight, she told The Associated Press that she“never really thought that going on a spaceflight would be a real option” for her,“because even a super healthy person, it's so competitive, right?”

Her accident had dashed whatever hope she had –“There is like no history of people with disabilities flying to space," she told AP.

An ecstatic Michaela told AP that she laughed all the way up, the capsule soared more than 65 miles (105 kilometres), and tried to turn upside down once in space.

“It was the coolest experience,” she said shortly after landing.

"Congratulations, Michi! You just inspired millions to look up and imagine what is possible," new NASA chief Jared Isaacman said on X.

Also Read | Blue Origin nails booster landing after launching NASA's Mars mission | Watch 'Minor adjustments only...': Blue Origin

Blue Origin said that the flight required only minor adjustments to accommodate Michaela. According to AP, the space company added a patient transfer board to the New Shepard capsule so she could scoot between the capsule's hatch and her seat.

Their recovery team also unrolled a carpet on the desert floor following touchdown, providing immediate access to her wheelchair, which she left behind at liftoff.

Blue Origin's Jake Mills, an engineer who trained the crew and assisted them on launch day, said that the autonomous New Shepard capsule was designed with accessibility in mind,“making it more accessible to a wider range of people than traditional spaceflight.”

It was the 16th crewed flight for Blue Origin using its New Shepard rocket.

Also Read | SpaceX, Blue Origin set to make 2025 Florida's biggest year in rocket launches About Blue Origin

Dozens of people have travelled to space with Blue Origin, including the pop singer Katy Perry and William Shatner, who played the legendary Captain Kirk on Star Trek.

These high-profile guests help maintain public interest in the flights at a time when private space companies are vying for preeminence.

While Blue Origin doesn't disclose its price for a seat on one of its tourism flights, rival space tourism company Virgin Galactic charges around $600,000 for a similar experience.

(With agency inputs)

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