Blue Origin’s next New Shepard flight is poised to mark a turning point for space tourism, with a wheelchair user preparing to join the crew on a suborbital trip that will cross the boundary of space. The mission is being framed as both a technical milestone and a cultural one, signaling that commercial spaceflight is beginning to take accessibility seriously rather than treating it as an afterthought.
At the center of this story is aerospace engineer Michi Benthaus, who will ride on the company’s upcoming NS-37 mission and, if all goes as planned, become the first wheelchair user to reach space on a commercial tourist launch. Her seat on this flight is reshaping expectations about who belongs in the cabin when rockets leave Earth.
The NS-37 mission and why it matters
Blue Origin’s next New Shepard launch, designated NS-37, is being presented as a landmark step in the evolution of space tourism because it explicitly integrates disability inclusion into a high-profile commercial flight. The company has flown paying passengers and celebrity guests before, but this time the crew manifest is designed to demonstrate that a wheelchair user can safely experience the same suborbital arc, microgravity, and return as any other tourist. By putting accessibility at the heart of a standard mission rather than a special demonstration, Blue Origin is signaling that inclusive design is becoming part of its core business model.
The company has described NS-37 as a “landmark” effort to Fly First Wheelchair User to Space, underscoring that this is not just another numbered flight but a mission designed to test how its capsule, procedures, and crew support systems perform when one passenger uses mobility aids. The NS-37 designation itself is more than a serial number, it reflects a cadence of repeated suborbital operations that are now mature enough to accommodate more complex passenger needs, including the specific requirements of a wheelchair user during preflight, ascent, microgravity, and landing.
Who is Michi Benthaus?
Michi Benthaus is not simply a passenger buying a ticket for a thrill ride, she is an aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency whose professional life is rooted in the same technical world that makes flights like NS-37 possible. Her selection for the crew blends lived experience of disability with deep familiarity with spacecraft systems, which gives her a dual perspective on what it means to adapt hardware and procedures for a broader range of bodies. That combination is part of what makes her presence on this mission so symbolically powerful.
Reporting on the NS-37 crew notes that Michi Benthaus, often referred to simply as Benthaus, works as an aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency and has dedicated her career to advancing spaceflight technologies. Additional coverage describes how Benthaus, also identified as Michaela and “Michi,” has committed years of effort to making space more inclusive, a theme that is echoed in profiles of Michaela (Michi) Benthaus as a key member of the NS-37 crew. Together, these accounts portray a professional who is as comfortable in a control room as she is in a wheelchair, and who sees her seat on New Shepard as part of a broader push to open the final frontier to people with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities.
How Blue Origin adapted New Shepard for accessibility
For a wheelchair user to fly, the New Shepard system has to do more than simply offer a roomy cabin. The mission requires careful planning around ingress and egress, seat design, restraint systems, and emergency procedures so that a passenger who relies on a wheelchair on Earth can still move safely through each phase of flight. That means rethinking how crew members board the capsule, how they are supported during high acceleration, and how they float and reorient themselves in microgravity without the same lower-body control that many standard procedures assume.
Blue Origin’s own description of the NS-37 mission highlights that the company is using this flight to fly a wheelchair user on a suborbital tourist launch, which implies that the New Shepard capsule and ground operations have been evaluated and adjusted for accessibility. Earlier analysis of the first wheelchair user in space notes that Her journey will take place aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital system, with attention to how Her space journey intersects with a spinal cord injury and the need for tailored support. Together, these details suggest that the company has been working through the practicalities of accessible spaceflight, from modified boarding ramps to training sequences that account for different muscle control and balance in weightlessness.
The rest of the NS-37 crew and the “37 M” milestone
Although Benthaus is the focus of global attention, NS-37 is still a multi-passenger tourist mission, and the rest of the crew helps illustrate how Blue Origin is blending traditional space tourism with a new emphasis on inclusion. The company has assembled six passengers for this flight, a mix that reflects both the paying customer base for suborbital trips and the desire to showcase a diverse set of backgrounds and stories. By placing a wheelchair user alongside other tourists rather than isolating her on a special flight, Blue Origin is trying to normalize disability within the broader narrative of commercial space travel.
Coverage of the NS-37 crew lists Benthaus as one of six passengers on the 37 M mission, a shorthand that captures both the NS-37 designation and the marketing of the flight as a milestone for mobility. Additional reporting on Blue Origin’s next space tourism mission notes that the company has announced the six passengers who will fly on its upcoming NS 37 mission, a suborbital tourist launch that is being framed as a historic step for accessibility and Space Tourism. The crew list, in other words, is designed to show that a wheelchair user can share the cabin with other travelers on equal terms, rather than as a special case.
Why this flight is a breakthrough for disability representation
For decades, the image of an astronaut has been tightly bound to a narrow physical ideal, one that excluded people with visible disabilities almost by definition. NS-37 challenges that legacy by putting a wheelchair user in a seat that will cross the Kármán line, a symbolic and legal boundary that many countries use to define where space begins. The significance is not only that Benthaus will experience microgravity, but that she will do so as a visible representative of a community that has long been told that space is off limits.
Analysts who have followed the story of the first wheelchair user in space emphasize that this mission is part of a broader shift in how agencies and companies think about disability, moving from a model of exclusion to one of adaptation and inclusion. The narrative around INSIDE OUTER SPACE highlights how a spinal cord injury has historically been treated as a disqualifying condition for astronaut selection, and how commercial flights like New Shepard are beginning to rewrite that script. By flying Benthaus, Blue Origin is not only expanding its customer base, it is also helping to normalize the idea that people with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities can be explorers, engineers, and space travelers in their own right.
How Michi Benthaus prepared for launch
Preparing a wheelchair user for a suborbital flight involves more than the standard centrifuge runs and classroom briefings that many space tourists undergo. Benthaus has had to work with trainers and medical teams to understand how her body will respond to high g-forces, rapid transitions between acceleration and weightlessness, and the unique challenges of moving in a cabin where handholds and footholds are designed with certain assumptions about mobility. That preparation is as much about learning new techniques as it is about adapting existing procedures to her specific needs.
Reports on the NS-37 mission describe how Benthaus, as an aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency, brings a professional understanding of spacecraft dynamics to her training, which allows her to engage with instructors at a technical level while also advocating for accessibility. Coverage that profiles Benthaus notes that she is about to make history as one of the six passengers on NS-37, and that her preparation includes both physical conditioning and detailed simulations of how she will move in microgravity. By combining her engineering background with lived experience of disability, she is helping trainers refine procedures that could later be used by other wheelchair users who want to reach the final frontier.
Blue Origin’s broader strategy on inclusive space tourism
NS-37 is not happening in a vacuum, it fits into a broader strategy in which Blue Origin is trying to position itself as a leader in accessible space tourism. The company has already built a business around short suborbital flights that offer a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of Earth’s curvature, and it now appears to be layering inclusion into that model as a differentiator. By flying a wheelchair user, Blue Origin is signaling to potential customers and regulators that it is willing to invest in the engineering and training needed to expand who can safely fly.
Statements about the mission emphasize that Blue Origin is launching the first wheelchair user to space on a historic tourist flight, framing the mission as a milestone in its ongoing series of commercial launches. Additional reporting on the NS-37 mission underscores that Blue Origin is using this flight to demonstrate that its suborbital system can accommodate a wider range of passengers, including those who rely on mobility aids on Earth. By doing so, the company is not only expanding its potential market, it is also setting a precedent that other commercial operators will be pressured to follow if they want to claim that space is truly open to all.
What NS-37 means for future astronauts and agencies
The implications of NS-37 extend beyond Blue Origin’s own manifest and into the policies of national space agencies and future astronaut selection processes. If a wheelchair user can safely complete a suborbital flight on a commercial rocket, it becomes harder to justify blanket medical exclusions that have historically kept people with certain disabilities out of astronaut corps. Agencies that partner with commercial providers for crewed missions will have to grapple with the fact that private companies are already proving that a wider range of bodies can handle at least some types of spaceflight.
Commentary on the first wheelchair user in space suggests that missions like NS-37 could eventually influence how organizations such as the European Space Agency and others think about long term human spaceflight. The fact that Benthaus is herself an aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency, as highlighted in coverage of European Space Agency staff flying as tourists, blurs the line between professional astronaut and commercial passenger. Over time, that blurring could lead to new categories of mission specialists whose expertise, rather than their adherence to a narrow physical template, becomes the primary criterion for selection.
The cultural impact of seeing a wheelchair in space
Beyond the technical and policy implications, there is a powerful cultural dimension to watching a wheelchair user strap into a rocket and cross into space. Representation matters, and images of Benthaus floating in microgravity or looking out the capsule window will resonate with people who have never seen their own bodies reflected in the iconography of space exploration. For children and adults with disabilities, those images can shift what feels possible, turning space from an abstract dream into a concrete aspiration.
Profiles of Next Blue Origin tourist launches emphasize that Michaela, Michi, Benthaus has dedicated her life to making space more inclusive, and that her flight is being watched closely by disability advocates around the world. As images and stories from NS-37 circulate, they will help normalize the idea that wheelchairs and other assistive technologies belong in the same visual frame as rockets, spacesuits, and star fields. That normalization is a quiet but profound shift, one that could ultimately prove as important as any technical upgrade to the New Shepard system itself.
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