Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, made history on Saturday by sending a person in a wheelchair to space for the first time on a commercial flight. Michaela 'Michi' Benthaus became the first passenger with reduced mobility to travel beyond the Kármán line, located about 100 kilometers above the Earth and internationally recognized as the space boundary. According to Blue Origin, which announced the news on social media X, this is 'another step towards the accessibility of space travel for everyone.' Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency who suffered a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident in 2018, was part of a six-crew mission called 'Out of the Blue.' 'I am excited to show the world that people in wheelchairs can also make a suborbital flight, and I am very happy that Blue Origin is supporting it,' she said. The space mission lasted approximately 10 minutes in total, and its participants spent several minutes in microgravity before returning safely to Earth's surface. Blue Origin noted that it was not necessary to modify either the launch tower or the crew capsule to accommodate the needs of a person with a disability, as they were already designed with these specifics in mind. Bezos's company has already taken dozens of space tourists beyond the Kármán line on missions lasting between 10 and 11 minutes. One of its most high-profile missions included an all-female crew that included Amazon founder's wife, Lauren Sánchez, and singer Katy Perry.
