{"id":462923,"date":"2025-12-21T20:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/462923\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T20:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:55:14","slug":"blue-origin-launch-includes-first-wheelchair-user-to-go-to-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/462923\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin launch includes first wheelchair user to go to space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Origin, the commercial space flight company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, made history with 37th flight of its New Shepard program.<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Watch zero gravity inside Blue Origin space flight with Katy Perry<\/p>\n

Katy Perry, Gayle King and four other women experienced zero gravity as they reached the edge of space on Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

A 33-year-old\u00a0aerospace engineer\u00a0has\u00a0made space travel history,\u00a0becoming the\u00a0first person who uses a wheelchair<\/a>\u00a0to pass the boundary of outer space.<\/p>\n

Michaela (Michi)\u00a0Benthaus, a German aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency, blasted into space Dec. 20 with five other passengers aboard\u00a0Blue Origin\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0New Shepard rocket, completing a dream she thought might never be possible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benthaus, a\u00a0longtime adventurer, injured her spinal cord in a\u00a02018\u00a0mountain biking accident.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0used a\u00a0wheelchair since.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI really figured out how inaccessible our world still is, and sometimes how socially excluding a wheelchair can be,\u201d\u00a0Benthaus\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a Blue Origin interview ahead of the flight.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video footage from the voyage published by Blue Origin shows\u00a0Benthaus\u00a0and the five other passengers aboard the flight\u00a0floating in the air as they\u00a0looked\u00a0out the window, down at the\u00a0blue ball\u00a0of Earth\u00a0below.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not stop here,\u201d\u00a0Benthaus\u00a0said when she deboarded the Blue Origin rocket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 10-minute space flight took the crew just above the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n Line, a recognized demarcation between Earth\u2019s atmosphere and outer space that sits about 62 miles above sea level. It marked the 37th\u00a0flight of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard program, the reusable spacecraft developed for the company’s suborbital missions that takes passengers on trips above Earth’s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin, the commercial space flight company founded by\u00a0billionaire Jeff\u00a0Bezos,\u00a0launched the flight from its private ranch in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border, known as Launch Site One.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other passengers on the flight included the Florida physicist Joey Hyde; German-American\u00a0aerospace engineer Hans Koenigsmann, who previously worked at SpaceX; energy sector\u00a0entrepreneur\u00a0Adonis Pouroulis and West Texas space enthusiast Jason Stansell.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blue Origin said it designed its space flight program \u201cwith accessibility in mind.\u201d\u00a0The company provided adaptations to help\u00a0Benthaus, such as a special strap to keep her legs secure as her body lifted in space\u2019s microgravity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to be an inclusive society, we should be inclusive in every part,\u201d\u00a0Benthaus said<\/a>\u00a0of the flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jared Isaacman, the Trump administration\u2019s new NASA administrator, applauded\u00a0Benthaus\u2019 journey in a post on social media.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations, Michi! You just inspired millions to look up and imagine what is possible,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Isaacman, the founder and former CEO of a payment processing company.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Origin, the commercial space flight company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, made history with 37th flight of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":462924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[211021,10981,4514,1086,446,69,210,1092,211020,18275,26557,916,50,450,1457,3546,19818,1451,159,1194,783,2553,2527,158,491,277,646,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-462923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-assistive","9":"tag-assistive-technology","10":"tag-astronomy","11":"tag-conditions","12":"tag-donald","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-health-conditions","16":"tag-isaacman","17":"tag-jared","18":"tag-jared-isaacman","19":"tag-nasa","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-overall","22":"tag-overall-positive","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-people-u0026-society","25":"tag-positive","26":"tag-science","27":"tag-society","28":"tag-space","29":"tag-space-technology","30":"tag-spacex","31":"tag-technology","32":"tag-technology-news","33":"tag-trump","34":"tag-u0026","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115759555360984721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}