From the wheelchair to space on a rocket by Jeff Bezos
Photo: AP Agency.
Imagine this: you spend seven years trapped in a wheelchair after a mountain bike accident. Your dream is to float in space, but of course, “there is no history of people with disabilities flying into space,” as you yourself acknowledge. And then what happens? A guy who worked at SpaceX calls you, offers you a ride on Jeff Bezos’ toy rocket, and poof! you become the first wheelchair user to leave the atmosphere. Life, sometimes, has a quite literal sense of humor.
Michaela Benthaus, a 33-year-old German engineer, laughed “all the way up” during her Saturday suborbital flight with Blue Origin. The New Shepard capsule soared more than 65 miles above West Texas—because what better place to launch rockets than America’s backyard?—and she attempted to stand upside down in weightlessness. “It was the coolest experience,” he declared later. Of course, when you’ve been confined to a chair for seven years, three minutes floating like a balloon must taste like heaven.
Logistics (or how to put a wheelchair in a can)
The funniest thing—or perhaps the most hopeful—is that Blue Origin claims it only required “minor adjustments” to accommodate it. Because yes, the capsule was designed with accessibility in mind. His previous space tourists? People with limited mobility, nonagenarians… come on, the most exclusive and diverse social club in the solar system.
Minor adjustments included:
- A patient transfer board to slide between the hatch and the seat (space slide anyone?).
- A mat in the desert after landing for immediate access to your chair (because nothing ruins the moment more than having to crawl through the sand).
- An elevator on the platform to go up the seven floors to the capsule (fortunately, Bezos didn’t make them take the stairs).
Benthaus had already tested weightlessness in parabolic flights and participated in simulated missions. But when Hans Koenigsmann—the former SpaceX executive who organized and sponsored this—called her last year, he thought it was “a misunderstanding.” Spoiler: it wasn’t. He accepted instantly. Who turns down a free trip to space paid for by a stranger? Only the very prudent.
The business of sleep (and opaque prices)
Here’s the good thing: ticket prices were not revealed. Of course not. Because when you’re the richest man on the planet—or one of them—and you want to send a paraplegic engineer into space for reasons that mix philanthropy, marketing, and whim, the last thing you want is for people to start doing the math. Koenigsmann paid. Blue Origin put the rocket. And everyone happy.
It is a private mission, without the participation of space agencies – although the ESA has a training program where Benthaus participates. Meanwhile, NASA cleared John McFall, a British amputee, for a future flight to the International Space Station. Hateful Comparisons: McFall uses prosthetics and could evacuate himself; Benthaus cannot walk and needed Koenigsmann and an engineer to carry her down “the short flight of stairs” after the flight. But hey, who needs independence when you’re weightless?
“You should never give up on your dreams, right?” Benthaus urged after landing.
Its goal now is to improve accessibility on Earth. Ironic, right? You have to get out into space to be taken seriously about improving the ramps down here. He says that inside “my space bubble” he receives positive comments, but outside it is not always so inclusive. What a surprise.
The flight lasted 10 minutes. Blue Origin’s total list of space travelers rose to 86 people—among executives and investors—because nothing says human advancement like taking millionaires to the edge of space. Bezos founded the company in 2000 and began manned flights in 2021; They are now using larger rockets from Florida and planning lunar modules.
Meanwhile, Michaela Benthaus floated upside down over Texas, contemplating our fragile blue planet from above, literally leaving behind her chair for a few glorious and weightless minutes, perhaps unintentionally demonstrating that the limits are where we decide to put them, even if it costs a fortune and outside help to reach them.
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