German engineer Michaela Benthaus, who has paraplegia, traveled to space with Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin.
German engineer Michaela Benthaus on Saturday became the first person with paraplegia to travel to space.
Benthaus, who is 33, was exuberant about her experience in space in comments made after her return to Earth. “It was the coolest experience ever, honestly,” the engineer, who works at the European Space Agency (ESA), said.
Benthaus sustained a spinal injury during a mountain bike accident at the age of 26 and now uses a wheelchair.
paraplegics have some advantages in space… they require less food, take up less space, walking isn’t an issue….
they’ve done whole studies on this
Cool, but not at all what is happening here. She spent 30 minute in a suborbital hop. Nothing here is groundbreaking or new, its just a photo-op.
it’s still neat…
It’s exploitation. They’re not astronauts - they’re props to get Bezos headlines.
obviously
Walking may not be an issue, but astronauts usually hook into things using their feet to stabilise themselves, can’t do that if you have no control over your legs.
This comment is braindead bigotry. It’s like saying a paraplegic can’t be a lawyer because they can’t climb the courthouse steps.
There has never existed an astronaut that didn’t need significant accommodation to live in work in space (duh), you’re arguing that disabled people don’t deserve the exact same treatment. Fuck you.
Show me where he said she can’t be an astronaut.
I’m just saying that just because they’re in space their disability doesn’t suddenly disappear. They still need some additional support, because astronauts still use their legs, just not for walking.
what an important contribution to the conversation
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She was a passenger.