{"id":195242,"date":"2025-12-20T18:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T18:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/195242\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T18:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T18:27:08","slug":"german-engineer-becomes-first-wheelchair-user-to-visit-space-dw-12-20-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/195242\/","title":{"rendered":"German engineer becomes first wheelchair user to visit space \u2013 DW \u2013 12\/20\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/germany\/t-17871182\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">German<\/a> engineer Michaela Benthaus on Saturday became the first person with paraplegia to travel to <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/space\/t-64606735\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">space<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The brief suborbital trip was carried out by <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/blue-origin-launches-rocket-carrying-nasa-mars-spacecraft\/a-74737924\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US billionaire Jeff Bezos&#8217; space tourism company Blue Origin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Saturday expedition was the 16th crewed flight for the firm.<\/p>\n<p>Also on board were former space engineer Hans K\u00f6nigsmann of Germany and four US entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>The New Shepard NS-37 launched off from a Bezos property in West Texas at 8:15 a.m. local time (1415 UTC) for a flight that lasted around 11 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>The vessel reached an altitude of approximately 100 kilometers (around 62 miles).<\/p>\n<p>The passengers experienced a brief moment of weightlessness as part of the trip.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of people have traveled to space with Blue Origin, <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/katy-perry-blasts-off-on-bezos-rocket\/a-72237920\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">including pop singer Katy Perry<\/a> and former Star Trek actor William Shatner. The firm aims to compete with <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/elon-musk\/t-63587027\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elon Musk&#8217;s SpaceX<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"75253947\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/75253947_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" alt=\"Michael Benthaus in blue suit sitting on window of Blue Origin capsule in Texas desert\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\"\/>The Blue Origin capsule landed in a desert area of West Texas in the southwestern United StatesImage: Blue Origin\/AP Photo\/picture alliance<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was the coolest experience ever&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Benthaus, who is 33, was exuberant about her experience in space in comments made after her return to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was the coolest experience ever, honestly,&#8221; the engineer, who works at the European Space Agency (ESA), said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think you should never give up on your dreams. There&#8217;s also sometimes just a low probability that it comes true,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Benthaus sustained a spinal injury during a mountain bike accident at the age of 26 and now uses a wheelchair.<\/p>\n<p>She called for the world to improve accessibility for <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/disability\/t-70943684\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">people with disabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After my accident \u2026 I really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is,&#8221; she said, saying that facilities for disabled people are required in order to form an &#8220;<a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/inclusion\/t-58166530\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inclusive<\/a> society.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German engineer Michaela Benthaus on Saturday became the first person with paraplegia to travel to space. The brief&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-195242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}