Watch Blue Origin launch 1st wheelchair user to space on Dec. 18
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Credit: Origine Bleue
Aerospace engineer Michi Benthaus will become the first person in a wheelchair to reach space on Thursday, December 18, and you can watch her historic launch live.
A Blue origin New Shepard suborbital vehicle carrying Benthaus and its five teammates are scheduled to take off from the company’s launch site in West Texas on Thursday during a window that opens at 9:30 a.m. EST (2:30 p.m. GMT; 8:30 a.m. Texas local time).
You can watch the launch live here on Space.com courtesy of Blue Origin, or directly through the company. Coverage will begin 40 minutes before takeoff.
The six passengers of Blue Origin’s upcoming NS-37 suborbital spaceflight. | Credit: Origine Bleue
Benthaus, who works at European Space Agencyhas used a wheelchair since suffering a mountain bike accident in 2018. Accompanying her on the flight are investors Joey Hyde and Adonis Pouroulis, aerospace engineer Hans Koenigsmann, entrepreneur Neal Milch and self-proclaimed “space nerd” Jason Stansell.
Koenigsmann’s name and face are familiar to many space fans, as he worked at EspaceX from 2002 to 2021. He served as the company’s vice president of flight construction and reliability for the last 10 years of that tenure and participated in numerous post-launch press conferences in that capacity.
Blue Origin is calling Thursday’s mission NS-37 because it will be the 37th liftoff for New Shepard, an autonomous and fully reusable rocket-capsule combo.
New Shepard’s flights are suborbital and brief, lasting only 10 to 12 minutes between takeoff and landing of the capsule. Passengers can see Earth in the darkness of space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.
They also receive astronaut wings. New Shepard exceeds the 100 kilometer mark Karman Linethe widely recognized boundary where space begins.
The patch for Blue Origin’s NS-37 suborbital tourist mission. | Credit: Origine Bleue
Sixteen of New Shepard’s 36 flights to date have carried passengers; the other 20 were uncrewed research missions. The 16 crewed flights carried a total of 86 people, but only 80 people – six passengers were regular customers.
Blue Origin has not revealed how much it charges for a seat aboard the New Shepard.
