A German aerospace engineer has made history as the first person who uses a wheelchair to travel to space, following a successful suborbital flight by Blue Origin on Saturday.
The New Shepard rocket, operated by the space company owned by American billionaire Jeff Bezos, lifted off at 8:15 a.m. (1415 GMT) from Blue Origin’s launch site in Texas.
Among the passengers was Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer with the European Space Agency (ESA). During the approximately 10-minute flight, the capsule crossed the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.
Benthaus sustained a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident and has since used a wheelchair. Speaking in a video released by Blue Origin, she said her experience after the accident exposed how inaccessible much of the world remains for persons with disabilities.
“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,” she said.
The fully automated New Shepard rocket launched vertically before separating mid-flight, allowing the passenger capsule to descend gently back to the Texas desert with the aid of parachutes.
Saturday’s launch marked Blue Origin’s 16th crewed flight, as the company continues to offer space tourism missions, though ticket prices remain undisclosed. Several high-profile individuals, including pop star Katy Perry and actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame, have previously flown aboard the spacecraft.
Blue Origin’s space tourism programme is part of broader competition among private space companies, including Virgin Galactic, while the company also aims to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX in orbital missions. Earlier this year, Blue Origin successfully completed two uncrewed orbital test flights of its powerful New Glenn rocket.
AFP
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