Meet Michaela Benthaus, Set To Become The First Wheelchair User In Space

Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is set to script history by sending a wheelchair user into space for the first time. Michaela "Michi" Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer, will join five other crew members on the upcoming NS-37 mission aboard the New Shepard rocket.

The suborbital flight will take the crew past the Karman line, located 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, which is internationally recognised as the boundary of outer space.

Benthaus, who has been in a wheelchair since a 2018 mountain biking accident, will be joined on the flight by engineer Hans Koenigsman, entrepreneur Neal Milch, investors Joey Hyde and Adonis Pouroulis, and “space nerd” Jason Stansell.

Michaela (Michi) Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, has dedicated her career to scientific collaboration for the advancement of interplanetary exploration. In 2018, she was involved in a mountain biking accident that resulted in a… pic.twitter.com/dSBLGlrE65

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) December 18, 2025

Who is Michaela "Michi" Benthaus?

1. Michaela Benthaus is a German aerospace and mechatronics engineer. She completed her graduation in Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation Engineering and later earned a master's degree from the Technical University of Munich, as per her LinkedIn profile.
2. She has worked at various research centres since 2016 before joining European Space Agency in 2024 as a Young Graduate Trainee (YGT) Mars Radio Occultation in the Netherlands. 
3. She has used a wheelchair since 2018 mountain biking accident that caused a spinal cord injury. In December 2022, she took part in a parabolic zero-gravity flight from Houston and was later chosen as an Astro Access ambassador, joining their second zero-gravity flight crew.
4. In April 2024, Benthaus participated in an analog astronaut mission at the Lunares Research Station in Poland, where she served as mission commander during a two-week isolation exercise with an international team. Notably, Lunares is the world's first wheelchair-accessible analog space habitat.
5. Outside her professional work, Benthaus continues to pursue sports, including wheelchair tennis.

During the 10-12 minute flight, the group will experience several minutes of microgravity before returning to Earth. NS-37 will mark Blue Origin's 16th human spaceflight. So far, the company has flown 86 people, including 80 first-time space travellers, past the Karman line.