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German engineer becomes first wheelchair user to go to space as part of Blue Origin mission

Jeff Bezos' aerospace firm Blue Origin marked a historic milestone on Saturday (December 20) after launching the first wheelchair user above the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary of space. German aerospace engineer Michaela Benthaus, an engineer with the European Space Agency, sustained a spinal cord injury after a mountain biking accident in 2018 and has since become an advocate for accessible space travel. She and her fellow passengers Joey Hyde, Hans Koenigsmann, Neal Milch, Adonis Pouroulis, and Jason Stansel blasted off into space aboard a Blue Origin New Shephard rocket at 0916 am EDT/1416GMT. The crew experienced a few minutes of microgravity before returning to Earth via parachute-assisted landing in the West Texas desert. "I think you should never give up on your dreams, right? I mean, there's also sometimes just a low probability that it comes true. And I just got very lucky," Benthaus said upon landing.

BLUE ORIGIN | REUTERS

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Transcript
00:00We should only call a program.
00:13The astronauts are returning to their seats and the booster will actually land about two
00:39miles north from the launch pad it's below 500 miles an hour now
00:49that was the sun and you can see the relay
00:52engine restart
01:12booster touchdown touchdown welcome home new shepherd booster you should be able to up there's
01:17there's the crew capsule now we're going to look for the drogue deployment
01:28there it is there we are three reefed parachutes always really really good to see this
01:38amazing
01:47captain touchdown touchdown auto seeking start welcome home ns-37 our astronauts have landed and
02:02they have touched down back in west texas welcome home crew of ns-37 37th mission to space for new
02:10shepherd this is a special thing today you can kind of see that they have laid out a special
02:17kind of little map there for the wheelchair access that is not a normal thing that we've done before
02:23but it's it's a an accommodation that we've made to be able to fly mihi to space
02:35this is incredible i love hearing the the crowd there cheering her on from the from the ground there at west texas
02:50this is incredible i love hearing the the crowd there cheering her on from the from the ground there at west texas
03:04and we have our cm7 sarah knight and jake mills
03:12they're gonna lift mihi down into the wheelchair and she has completed her journey to space and back
03:19safely back safely back home on earth
03:23look at that big smile
03:27oh the joy that she must have right now
03:29so cool so we're gonna hear uh now from the astronauts here in a second so what's gonna
03:40happen is jake mills our crew member seven is going to uh catch up with a few of the astronauts and
03:47here we go oh look at that moment
03:59missy congratulations thank you you told me after your act the accident that you thought this dream of
04:05going to space was no longer possible you just showed the world that it is possible what would
04:10you say to folks what would you say to folks that have given up on a dream because they thought it was
04:15impossible i think you should never give up on your dreams right but i mean there's also sometimes
04:21just a low probability that it comes true and i just got very lucky and i'm very grateful that blue
04:27and hans and everyone's ideas to this journey we're grateful for you too congratulations
04:57so
05:02you
05:04you
05:06you
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