"I Hope I Am Just the Beginning": Words from the First Wheelchair User in Space

Blue Origin Modifies Spacecraft for Accessibility

A wheelchair user has embarked on a space journey for the first time.

According to Yonhap News Agency on December 20 (local time), citing an announcement by Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce company, German engineer Michaela Venthaus (33), who has a disability, traveled beyond the Karman line-the boundary between Earth and space-aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-37 spacecraft, accompanied by five fellow passengers.

Michaela Venthaus (33), a German engineer and the first person with a disability using a wheelchair to travel to space, is seen exiting the Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft capsule that landed in West Texas, USA, on the 20th. Provided by Blue Origin. AP, Yonhap News Agency

After completing the approximately 10-minute spaceflight and landing, Venthaus said, “Honestly, this was the most amazing experience I have ever had,” adding, “I hope doors open for people like me. I hope I am just the beginning.”

The Associated Press reported that this is the first time a wheelchair user has traveled to space. Previously, Hayley Arceneaux, who overcame bone cancer and has a prosthetic leg, boarded a SpaceX spacecraft in 2021. In previous New Shepard flights, participants have included those with visual or hearing impairments, or people with mobility challenges.

Venthaus, an engineer at the European Space Agency (ESA), suffered a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident in 2018, resulting in paralysis of her lower body. To accommodate her flight, Blue Origin installed a patient transfer board inside the spacecraft capsule, allowing her to move between the hatch and her seat.

Additionally, after landing, a carpet was laid on the desert ground in West Texas so that she could immediately transfer to the wheelchair she had left at launch. Blue Origin explained that its spacecraft were designed with accessibility in mind from the outset, including the installation of an elevator, so only minor adjustments were needed.

Hans Koenigsmann, a German and former SpaceX executive, also joined this spaceflight. He proposed and sponsored Venthaus’s journey. During the flight, Koenigsmann was designated as Venthaus’s emergency assistant, and after landing, he helped lift her out of the capsule and down a short flight of stairs.

The ESA has approved a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for John McFall, a disabled astronaut candidate, but McFall has not yet traveled to space. McFall, a former Paralympian from the United Kingdom, lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident as a teenager.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin has been developing technology for over a year to build AI data centers in space. At the same time, the company has begun developing a super-heavy rocket even larger than the current 98-meter-tall New Glenn.