In a milestone in the space age, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a wheelchair-using engineer and disability advocate to the edge of space on Saturday, a 10-minute flight that allowed her to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness more than 65 miles above Earth.
Michaela Benthaus, a German aerospace engineer who suffered a spinal cord injury in a 2018 mountain bike accident, joined a retired SpaceX director and four entrepreneurs on the round-trip to a point above the so-called “frontier” of space.
“It was the most amazing experience!” she said after landing, joking about turning upside down in weightlessness. “Not only did I love the view and the microgravity, but I also loved the ascent. It was so amazing, every stage of the ascent.”
German aerospace engineer and disability advocate Michaela Penthaus greets well-wishers and Blue Origin support staff moments after being transferred from the New Shepard spacecraft. /Credit: Blue Origin webcast
Benthaus was assisted during training and inside the Blue Origin capsule by Hans Koenigsmann, a former SpaceX manager and engineer who was instrumental in developing the Falcon family of rockets.
Koenigsmann, a German citizen by birth and a naturalized American citizen, helped arrange the Penthouse trip after meeting her last year.
“I first met Hans online,” Penthouse said in an interview with Blue Origin. “I just asked him, you know, I’ve worked at SpaceX for a long time, do you think people like me can become astronauts?
“Then he reached out to Blue Origin and said oh, Blue is actually really excited about it. Well, I have my doubts about it, but let’s see. Fortunately, it turned out that we were able to do it. So Hans and I (ended up) flying as a team,” Benthos continued.
Koenigsmann said that Penthouse “fundamentally inspired me to do it. It was her motivation that convinced me that I should do it too, and experience something that I had seen from the outside for a long time.”
The New Shepard spacecraft lifts off from the Blue Origin launch site in West Texas. /Credit: Blue Origin webcast
Benthaus was able to make her way herself from her wheelchair to the New Shepard capsule before launch, where she glided along a bench extending from the opening provided by Blue Origin. The Königsmann was tied up nearby to provide assistance during the voyage if necessary.
Delayed by two days due to last-minute technical issues, the countdown went smoothly to zero on Saturday and New Shepard lifted off from Blue Origin’s launch pad in West Texas at 9:15 a.m. EDT.
The capsule accelerated straight into a mostly clear sky, and the capsule’s single-stage booster reached nearly three times the speed of sound before the hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine stalled about two and a half minutes after liftoff.
At that point, New Shepard’s capsule was released to continue rising on its own, and the crew, now weightless, was free to briefly unbuckle and float around the cabin.
Benthaus’s legs were tied together to keep her in place, but she was also free to enjoy the thrill of weightlessness while New Shepard reached a peak altitude of just over 65 miles, well above the point at 62 miles where aerodynamic forces no longer had any effect.
At this altitude, the “sky” is black, and the Earth’s horizon is sharply curved. Passengers can enjoy the view through the largest windows ever launched into space.
One passenger was heard exclaiming over the capsule’s radio: “Oh my God.”
“Unbelievable,” said another.
Upon falling back into the lower atmosphere, the crew was warned to return to their seats to pack before the onset of atmospheric deceleration. Maximum deceleration subjects New Shepard’s crew to about five times the normal gravitational force.
Meanwhile, the missile followed a similar path, falling tail-first toward the launch site. Near the ground, the BE-3 engine was re-ignited, the landing legs were deployed and the rocket stabilized on a landing target on a concrete pad near the launch bridge.
New Shepard’s reusable booster performed a landing on the target after pushing New Shepard’s capsule out of the lower atmosphere. /Credit: Blue Origin webcast
The New Shepard spacecraft descended under three large parachutes and landed in a cloud of dust near the rocket and its launch pad. Blue Origin support personnel quickly arrived at the spacecraft to help the crew out.
The New Shepard capsule landed about 10 and a half minutes after liftoff. /Credit: Blue Origin Webpack
Joining Penthouse and Koenigsmann on board New Shepard are physicist-investor Joey Hyde, entrepreneur Neil Milch, adventurer Jason Stancill, and Adonis Bouroulis, a South African businessman and mining engineer.
All six of them waved and smiled widely as they exited the pod one by one. Benthaus was last extricated, transferred from the spacecraft by Koenigsmann and a member of Blue Origin’s recovery team to a nearby wheelchair.
“You should never give up on your dreams, right?” she said after landing. “I feel very lucky, and I am so grateful to Blue, Hans and everyone who said yes to this trip.”
Blue Origin does not publicly disclose the cost of a New Shepard seat, but the price is believed to be more than $500,000 per seat. It has not been revealed how the penthouse seat will be financed.
Passengers on a Blue Origin NS-37 take a photo on the giant launch pad. From left to right: Joey Hyde, Adonis Bouroulis, Hans Koenigsmann, Michaela Penthouse, Jason Stancil and Neil Milch. / Credit: Blue Origin
Saturday’s launch marks Blue Origin’s 16th New Shepard flight with passengers on board since Bezos, his brother and two others took off on the plane. The first flight of its kind in July 2021. Including Saturday’s flight, Blue Origin has now launched 92 men and women into space, including six who have flown twice.
While Benthaus was the first person with a significant physical disability to fly into space, ESA astronaut John McFaul, who has a prosthetic leg, has been allowed to be selected for a future trip to the International Space Station.
Penthouse said before its launch that the reaction to its flight aboard New Shepard had been mostly positive, saying she hoped more disabled people would be able to make their way into space.
The big question for NASA, other space agencies and private companies is not whether disabled astronauts will be able to carry out their duties in the weightless environment of space. It’s more about how to handle an emergency that might require a quick exit from their spacecraft, whether on Earth or in space.
In an interview with CNN, Penthouse said: “We are thinking more and more about long-duration space missions; some of us want to go to Mars in the future.”
“It’s a very long trip. And yes, people can get disabled on the way. They can have a stroke, break a leg, or have a spinal cord injury.”
“People with disabilities add real value to the crew…they develop a very special resilience,” she said at the end.
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