First Wheelchair User Flies to Space
The first wheelchair user flew into space today on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Michi Benthaus, who was injured in a mountain biking accident in 2018, achieved her dream of becoming an astronaut despite her disability with the help of Hans Koenigsmann, a former SpaceX executive.
Benthaus and Koenigsmann were two of the six passengers on New Shepard-37, or NS-37, which lifted off from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas at 9:15 am ET. The launch was delayed from Thursday by a technical problem, but went flawlessly today.
New Shepard flights are suborbital and last about 10 minutes. The passengers fly above the imaginary line that separates air and space at 100 kilometers (62 miles) and then return to Earth under parachutes. Because they cross that threshold, they are considered astronauts. New Shepard is named after Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space in 1961, who similarly flew a suborbital flight. Blue Origin uses the internationally recognized boundary at 100 km called the Karman line, although the U.S. government and others use 80 km (50 miles).
The other four passengers were Joey Hyde, Neal Milch, Adonis Pouroulis, and Jason Stansell.
Benthaus is an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency. Koenigsmann was one of the earliest SpaceX employees and rose to become Vice President for Build and Reliability before retiring in 2021. Benthaus contacted Koenigsmann over LinkedIn to ask if he thought people with disabilities could ever become astronauts, starting this journey together.
Michaela (Michi) Benthaus will become the first wheelchair user to cross the Kármán line. Her story, advocacy, and passion are evident in everything she does. pic.twitter.com/HusttrnUiQ
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) December 20, 2025
After landing, she said “you should never give up on your dreams” even if there is a “low probability that it comes true. And I just got very lucky and I’m very grateful that Blue [Origin] and Hans and everyone said yes to this journey.”
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