German aerospace engineer Michaela (Michi) Benthaus has used a wheelchair ever since 2018, when a mountain biking accident led to a life-changing spinal cord injury. Today, she’s a trailblazer for accessibility in human spaceflight, and she’s about to go where no wheelchair user has gone before.
Blue Origin is gearing up to launch Benthaus and five other civilian astronauts to suborbital space aboard New Shepherd’s 37th flight, making her the first person with paraplegia to travel beyond Earth. She will be accompanied by aerospace engineer and former SpaceX employee Hans Koenigsmann, investor Joey Hyde, entrepreneur Neal Milch, investor Adonis Pouroulis, and self-proclaimed “space nerd” Jason Stansell.
New Shepherd flights last 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to landing and allow the crew to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. The NS-37 mission is scheduled to launch from Launch Site One in West Texas no earlier than 9:30 a.m. ET next Thursday, December 18. Blue will begin livestreaming the event 40 minutes before liftoff.
In a LinkedIn post, Benthaus said she’s “beyond excited” for the mission. “This feels like an important step since space travel for people with disabilities is still in its very early days. I’m so thankful and hope it inspires a change in mindset across the space industry, creating more opportunities for people like me.”
Making spaceflight accessible to all
When it comes to making spaceflight accessible to those with disabilities, there’s still much work to be done. Traditionally, astronauts selected for space missions have been highly trained, athletically fit, and able-bodied. This has led to knowledge gaps around the human factors, operational challenges, and technological limitations that prevent people with disabilities from becoming astronauts.
Only in recent years have researchers begun to investigate these hurdles and develop ways to help people overcome them. One organization leading the charge is AstroAccess, which Benthaus has been an ambassador for since 2022.
The advocacy group conducts microgravity and analog astronaut missions with disabled scientists, veterans, students, athletes, and artists to investigate how spacecraft environments can be designed so that all astronauts can work and thrive in space. When Benthaus became an ambassador, she participated in a parabolic flight that allowed her to experience zero gravity for the first time.
Achieving a major milestone
The commercial spaceflight industry—particularly space tourism—plays an important role in improving spaceflight accessibility by offering mission opportunities to a more diverse population. Earlier this year, deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) AstroAccess ambassadors completed astronaut training for New Shepherd missions.
Now that she’s completed her own training, Benthaus is poised to become the first AstroAccess ambassador to actually participate in a New Shepherd flight. Her achievement will help validate strategies for making spaceflight accessible to people with paraplegia and pave the way for future astronauts with this condition.
“I thought my dream of going to space had ended forever when I had my accident,” Benthaus wrote in her LinkedIn post. “I might be the first—but have no intention of being the last.”
