Blue Origin’s NS-37 Will Carry First Wheelchair User to Space

Michi Benthaus, an aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency, has been named as one of six passengers for Blue Origin's upcoming NS-37 tourism flight. If the mission proceeds as planned, Benthaus will become the first wheelchair user to travel to space.

Crew and backgrounds

Michi (Michaela) Benthaus — An aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency, Benthaus has focused her career on scientific collaboration to advance interplanetary exploration. A spinal cord injury from a 2018 mountain-biking accident affected her ability to walk but did not diminish her interest in space. She flew a weightlessness-inducing parabolic aircraft in 2022 and completed a two-week analog astronaut mission in Poland in 2024.

Joey Hyde — A recently retired investor from "a leading hedge fund," according to Blue Origin, Hyde holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics and has a long-standing interest in human spaceflight.

Hans Koenigsmann — A German–American aerospace engineer who worked at SpaceX from 2002 to 2021. During the last decade of his tenure, he served as vice president of build and flight reliability, responsible for mission safety and launch reliability.

Neal Milch — An entrepreneur and executive who chairs the board of trustees at Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit biomedical research institute founded in Maine in 1929.

Adonis Pouroulis — A mining engineer, investor and entrepreneur focused on natural resources and the energy sector. Blue Origin noted his career and philanthropic work emphasize education and sustainable and responsible development of Earth's resources.

Jason Stansell — Described by the company as a "self-proclaimed space nerd" from West Texas, Stansell says he hopes to use the flight to inspire science education and healthy skepticism. He is dedicating the mission to his brother Kevin, who died in 2016 after battling brain cancer.

About NS-37 and New Shepard

NS-37 is the 37th flight of Blue Origin's reusable New Shepard rocket-and-capsule system. These are short suborbital missions that last roughly 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown and cross the Kármán line, commonly defined as about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth — the widely recognized boundary of space.

According to Blue Origin, NS-37 will be the New Shepard's 16th crewed flight overall and its seventh crewed mission of 2025. To date, the vehicle has carried 86 passengers on suborbital flights, representing 80 distinct individuals because some passengers have flown more than once.

Blue Origin has not disclosed ticket pricing for this experience. The company announced the crew roster on Dec. 3 but has not yet confirmed an exact launch date.

Why this matters

Benthaus's flight would represent a milestone for accessibility in commercial space tourism, highlighting broader efforts to make spaceflight more inclusive. The diverse NS-37 roster — which includes engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs and private citizens — also underscores the growing demand and interest in suborbital human spaceflight.