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<\/p>\n\n A Blue Origin rocket could soon launch with an unconventional passenger in a history-making moment made possible by a high-profile former employee of the company\u2019s biggest rival.\n <\/p>\n
\n Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, will be aboard the mission, known as NS-37, and become the first wheelchair user to travel to space. The unprecedented opportunity came together after encounter between Benthaus and Hans Koenigsmann, a former executive at SpaceX \u2014 Blue Origin\u2019s chief competitor.\n <\/p>\n
\n Koenigsmann, like Benthaus, is German, and the two of them were chatting during an event in Munich last year when Benthaus wondered aloud if she would ever be able to realize her dream of spaceflight in spite of a spinal cord injury that had left her unable to walk.\n <\/p>\n
\n Koenigsmann then began quietly conspiring to make it happen.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe said she was only thinking about a suborbital flight,\u201d Koenigsmann told CNN on Monday. While SpaceX offers multimillion-dollar rides to Earth orbit, Blue Origin offers brief trips to suborbital space, so Koenigsmann called up his former competitor. \u201cThey responded really, really well to us,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Koenigsmann and Benthaus will fly as a team, alongside four other passengers, aboard Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket. Similar flights have so far carried more than 80 people, including Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, singer Katy Perry and famed \u201cStar Trek\u201d actor William Shatner, on 10-minute trips to the edge of space \u2014 traveling high enough to surpass the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n Line, which is a common demarcation line for space that lies 100 kilometers (62 miles) above sea level.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen Hans told me, \u2018Blue is excited about this,\u2019 I was like, \u2018Are you sure? Are you sure you understood them correctly?\u2019\u201d Benthaus told CNN Tuesday. \u201cI always wanted to go to space, but I never really considered it something which I could actually do.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The crew was set to launch as soon as Thursday from Blue Origin\u2019s facilities near the remote town of Van Horn, Texas. But the company opted to stand down from the launch attempt because of an \u201cissue with built-in checks.\u201d Blue Origin did not provide further details about the issue, nor has it confirmed when it will make another flight attempt.\n <\/p>\n
\n During the brief, suborbital flight, Koenigsmann will serve as Benthaus\u2019 companion \u2014 ready to step in to assist her if the need arises.\n <\/p>\n
\n Benthaus expects to be able to carry out many flight operations herself. She can enter and exit the 15-foot-wide New Shepard capsule on her own, using a small bench.\n <\/p>\n
\n Benthaus also said she plans to use a strap to keep her legs bound together \u2014 preventing them from splaying wildly as passengers exit their seats to briefly float in weightlessness at the top of the flight path. (Blue Origin flights typically offer passengers three or four minutes of zero gravity.)\n <\/p>\n
\n She told CNN she hoped to be able to return to her seat without issue, though Koenigsmann is prepared to lend a hand.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Koenigsmann will also help Benthaus in the event of an emergency that requires a speedy exit from the spacecraft.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cBlue Origin is super well prepared,\u201d Benthaus said, noting that she and Koenigsmann previously traveled to the company\u2019s Texas facilities twice to hash out specific accommodations for this flight.\n <\/p>\n
\n Advocates have long pointed out that space travel can be an ideal adventure for people with disabilities, as weightlessness can offer the chance to move about unbridled by gravity.\n <\/p>\n
\n While no one with a mobility-limiting disability has yet traveled to space, there have been several notable strides forward in recent years. In 2021, Hayley Arceneaux<\/a>, a cancer survivor who has a titanium prosthesis in her leg, spent three days in orbit as part of an experimental civilian space mission. And John McFall<\/a>, a Paralympian with a prosthetic leg who works for the European Space Agency, this year became the first person with a physical disability ever to be medically cleared to fly to the International Space Station. (McFall has not yet flown to space.)\n <\/p>\n \n But Benthaus worried that her condition \u2014 a spinal cord injury from a 2018 mountain bike accident \u2014 might preclude her from achieving the same milestones.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMaybe space is for people who have an amputated leg but still can walk a little bit,\u201d Benthaus said she had wondered. \u201cMaybe having a spinal cord injury is way too disabled.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n When she reaches space, her accomplishment may quash similar doubts from others who have longed to experience spaceflight but are confined to a wheelchair.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, Benthaus said, she recognizes it may be years before trips to space are a regular occurrence for people like her.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn my case, Blue Origin is adapting the whole procedures,\u201d Benthaus said, acknowledging that such accommodations are not always possible.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think for a person with a spinal cord injury, we need to open our minds more and be willing to change existing systems,\u201d she said of what would be needed to allow more people with disabilities to reach Earth orbit and beyond.\n <\/p>\n \n Of course, Benthaus added, there are financial issues as well. Most people do not have the means to purchase a seat on any of the currently available commercial space tourism vehicles. Blue Origin does not disclose its ticket prices, but based on what its competitor Virgin Galactic charges<\/a>, the experience likely costs several hundred thousand dollars.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI got lucky that I met Hans (Koenigsmann),\u201d Benthaus said, adding that he and Blue Origin are supporting the mission.\n <\/p>\n \n Koenigsmann is something of a legend at SpaceX. As one of its earliest employees, he developed the avionics for the company\u2019s first rocket, the Falcon 1, in the early 2000s.\n <\/p>\n \n He later became SpaceX\u2019s head of build and flight reliability and often served as the face of the company, appearing on its behalf at news conferences<\/a> as SpaceX evolved into a globally dominant force in the commercial space industry.\n <\/p>\n \n But in 2021, Koenigsmann walked away from SpaceX. Walter Isaacson wrote in a recent biography<\/a> of Elon Musk that the volatile SpaceX CEO disliked a report that Koenigsmann wrote about an ill-fated test flight<\/a> of one of the company\u2019s rocket prototypes in 2020.\n <\/p>\n
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