Michaela Benthaus

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Michaela Michi Benthaus is a German disabled wheelchair bound astronaut and mechatronics, aerospace engineer. In December 2025, she became the first wheelchair user to orbit the space.[1][2] She works for the European Space Agency.

Career

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She encountered a major mountain biking accident in 2018 at the age of 26 and it permanently made her unable to locomote freely due to an injury which she sustained on the spinal cord.[3] The status of her medical condition was later revealed as being diagnosed with paraplegia. Since then, she had been using wheelchair as a part and parcel of her daily life. She was enrolled in a graduate trainee program of European Space Agency in the Netherlands.[4]

In 2022, she flew aboard in a parabolic airplane flight named Vomit Comet which was deemed by media to have the feature of being weightlessness for a brief period. In 2024, she accomplished a successful astronaut mission in Poland which lasted for a duration of two weeks.[5][4] She is also engaged in the sport of wheelchair tennis during her leisure time, apart from the primary job of aerospace engineering which earns her the main source of income and livelihood.[6]

In 2025, she was accompanied by fellow German engineer Hans Koenigsmann in her ambitious mission to fly in outer space.[7] It was revealed that Benthaus herself personally reached out to Hans Koenigsmann on examining the possibilities of whether she could realise her dream of being an astronaut.[2] Benthaus received required training arrangements and special attention inside the Blue Origin capsule under the supervision of Hans Koenigsmann.[8] She was onboard as one of the crew members of the sub-orbital spaceflight Blue Origin NS-37. Her suborbital trip was financed by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. She was sent to space by going past the RSS Kármán Line which is some 62 miles far away above the Earth.[9] She along with five other crew members in the Blue Origin NS-37 spaceflight took off from the US state of Texas on 20 December 2025 and lasted for 10 minutes.[8] Benthaus eventually became the first wheelchair bound astronaut to venture into space.[2][7]

She also advocated for more inclusion and for the equal rights of individuals with physical disabilities. After successfully orbiting the space, she had emphasized that more initiatives had to be put in place to give more space for the disabled people to shine in their preferred areas of interest. Benthaus is also known for her humanitarian efforts as she revealed her plans of having raised money to distribute for the welfare towards spinal cord injury research nonprofit organization "Wings for Life".[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Watch: Germany's Michaela Benthaus becomes first wheelchair user to travel to space". The Hindu. 2025-12-22. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  2. ^ a b c "Blue Origin: Engineer becomes first wheelchair user to go to space". www.bbc.com. 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  3. ^ "German engineer becomes first wheelchair user to visit space – DW – 12/20/2025". dw.com. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  4. ^ a b "Paraplegic engineer becomes first wheelchair user to float in space". NBC News. 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  5. ^ published, Mike Wall (2025-12-03). "Next Blue Origin tourist launch will fly wheelchair user to space for 1st time". Space. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  6. ^ "For the 1st time ever, a person who uses a wheelchair will fly to space". ABC News. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  7. ^ a b Press, Associated (2025-12-20). "First wheelchair-using astronaut touches down after ride to edge of space". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  8. ^ a b "Blue Origin launches wheelchair-user and 5 others on sub-orbital trip to space - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  9. ^ a b Wattles, Jackie (2025-12-20). "She just became the first wheelchair user to travel to space". CNN. Retrieved 2025-12-25.