Michaela Benthaus, a 33-year-old German aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, just became the first wheelchair user ever to travel past the Kármán Line — a common demarcation for outer space that lies 100 kilometers above sea level.
Her history-making trip aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard capsule took flight on Saturday morning, lifting off from the company’s launch facilities near Van Horn, Texas.
This was a sub orbital flight. By some definitions this does not count as reaching space.
Doom2pro on
“Space”.
Orbital tourism can’t come soon enough.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
Gordonls85 on
How cool, seriously! Being a type-1 diabetic, i’d love to see the first type-1 diabetic in space. That to me would be amazing.
Now for the kind of pedantic question:
As kids, didn’t many of us try a wheelchair out for a ride or being bored in an ER / hospital? Thus, many of us have used a wheelchair before.
Wouldn’t we say something like Parapalegic in this case? I don’t know the exact right term, but wheel chair user feels somewhat off to me. I get it, don’t get me wrong, but I am thinking something better could have been placed in the title.
Edit: Typos
flamingmongoose on
Whatever Blue Origin’s limitations as an aerospace competitor, they have learnt their lessons on the PR front. Happy for her
8 Comments
Michaela Benthaus, a 33-year-old German aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, just became the first wheelchair user ever to travel past the Kármán Line — a common demarcation for outer space that lies 100 kilometers above sea level.
Her history-making trip aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard capsule took flight on Saturday morning, lifting off from the company’s launch facilities near Van Horn, Texas.
Read more: [https://cnn.it/3KEHZI8](https://cnn.it/3KEHZI8)
This is very cool for wheelchair users!
God damn that must be some wheelchair!
This was a sub orbital flight. By some definitions this does not count as reaching space.
“Space”.
Orbital tourism can’t come soon enough.
[deleted]
How cool, seriously! Being a type-1 diabetic, i’d love to see the first type-1 diabetic in space. That to me would be amazing.
Now for the kind of pedantic question:
As kids, didn’t many of us try a wheelchair out for a ride or being bored in an ER / hospital? Thus, many of us have used a wheelchair before.
Wouldn’t we say something like Parapalegic in this case? I don’t know the exact right term, but wheel chair user feels somewhat off to me. I get it, don’t get me wrong, but I am thinking something better could have been placed in the title.
Edit: Typos
Whatever Blue Origin’s limitations as an aerospace competitor, they have learnt their lessons on the PR front. Happy for her