Blue Origin to Fly First Wheelchair User Into Space
The suborbital flight will carry aerospace engineer Michaela Michi Benthaus and five other passengers more than 62 miles above Earth aboard a reusable New Shepard rocket launching from West Texas.
Blue Origin is set to make spaceflight history Thursday, sending the first person who uses a wheelchair beyond the Kármán line — the internationally recognized edge of space — on its next New Shepard mission.
The suborbital flight will carry aerospace engineer Michaela "Michi" Benthaus and five other passengers more than 62 miles above Earth aboard a reusable New Shepard rocket launching from West Texas. Benthaus, who sustained a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident, has since become a leading advocate for expanded access to space.