内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/blue-origin-first-wheelchair-user-space-2/

内容总结：

蓝色起源成功将首位轮椅使用者送入太空 开启航天包容性新篇章

北京时间12月20日晚，美国蓝色起源公司（Blue Origin）成功执行其第37次新谢泼德（New Shepard）亚轨道飞行任务（NS-37），将首位轮椅使用者、欧洲航天局工程师迈克尔·本索斯送入太空，书写了人类航天史包容性发展的新一页。

本次任务于美国中部时间20日上午8时15分从得克萨斯州一号发射场顺利升空。此前一天，因飞行前检查系统发现异常，发射任务曾一度推迟。此次飞行是新谢泼德火箭第16次载人任务，飞船越过100公里高度的卡门线（国际公认的太空边界），六名乘员体验了约10分钟的失重状态，并观赏了地球弧线与深邃太空交织的壮丽景象，随后飞船成功返回地面。

本次飞行的焦点人物是33岁的德籍航天工程师迈克尔·本索斯。她自幼怀有航天梦，但2018年因山地自行车事故导致脊髓损伤，一度认为梦想破灭。2022年，她通过致力于为残障人士开拓航天之路的“太空通道”（AstroAccess）项目体验了失重飞行，重燃希望。此次飞行前，她已在波兰卢纳雷斯研究站担任过模拟太空任务指挥官。安全返回后，本索斯激动地表示：“这是最酷的经历……永远不应放弃梦想。”

蓝色起源为提升航天飞行的包容性已筹备多年，包括在发射塔加装电梯等设施，并由以物理学家霍金命名的内部资源小组“新霍金”推动相关工作。公司此前已搭载过有听力障碍、肢体差异或视力障碍的人士。本次任务虽未对载人舱进行重大改装，但地面团队提供了辅助长凳等便利设施。

除本索斯外，本次乘组还包括来自金融、航天、商业等领域的五位人士。任务还搭载了由蓝色起源教育基金会“未来俱乐部”征集的两万余张学生明信片。

蓝色起源高级副总裁菲尔·乔伊斯在任务总结中强调：“本索斯的飞行尤其意义重大，它证明了太空属于每一个人。”公司首席执行官戴夫·林普也表示，此次任务是“让太空飞行向所有人开放道路上的又一步”。

此次飞行再次彰显了商业航天在拓展人类进入太空机会、促进多元包容方面的积极角色。随着更多不同背景的参与者踏入太空，人类航天事业正朝着“为所有人开放”的愿景稳步迈进。

中文翻译：

杰夫·贝佐斯创立的蓝色起源太空公司今日在航天史上写下新篇章——将首位轮椅使用者送入太空。

"这是最酷的体验。"欧洲航天局德裔航空航天与机电一体化工程师米夏埃拉·"米奇"·本陶斯如此评价。她于2018年因山地自行车事故导致脊髓损伤。

蓝色起源的亚轨道火箭"新谢泼德号"于中部时间上午8:15（太平洋时间6:15）从得克萨斯西部的一号发射场升空。该公司表示，周四的首次发射尝试因飞行团队"在发射前检查中发现系统问题"而取消。虽未透露具体细节，但今日的倒计时发射过程一切顺利。

这是新谢泼德号第37次任务，也是第16次载人飞越国际公认的太空边界（海拔100公里/62英里）。包括贝佐斯本人在内，迄今已有86人乘坐该飞船，其中6人多次飞行。

作为NS-37任务的六名乘组成员之一，本陶斯在慕尼黑工业大学2023年发布的采访中透露，她自10岁起就立志成为宇航员。双腿瘫痪后，她曾认为太空梦"永远无法实现"。但2022年通过"太空无障碍"项目体验零重力飞行后重燃希望，该项目致力于为残障航天员铺平道路。去年她还在波兰卢纳雷斯研究站担任模拟太空任务指挥官。

33岁的她如今为太空探索开辟了新道路。"永远不要放弃梦想。"今日飞行后她如是说。蓝色起源首席执行官戴夫·林普在社交媒体X上称此任务"是让太空飞行面向所有人的又一里程碑"。新谢泼德项目高级副总裁菲尔·乔伊斯在任务总结中强调："米奇的飞行意义非凡，证明太空属于全人类。"

总部位于华盛顿州肯特市的蓝色起源多年来持续改进得州发射场的无障碍设施，例如在七层发射塔加装电梯。以致敬轮椅物理学家斯蒂芬·霍金命名的"新霍金"商业资源小组推动了这项工作。该公司此前已搭载过听力障碍、行动受限、肢体差异、弱视或法定失明人士。

本次飞行无需对飞船座舱进行重大改造，但发射评论员乔尔·伊比透露团队实施了"多项地面系统改进"，例如增设辅助转移长凳。在10分钟飞行中，乘组抵达106公里（65.7英里）高空，体验了数分钟失重状态，并观赏了黑暗太空中地球的弧线。任务结束时，助推器在发射台附近自主着陆，乘员舱则借助降落伞在得州西部沙漠着陆。

本陶斯回忆飞行体验时说："我尝试了倒转姿势。"本次任务乘组还包括：

• 物理学家兼量化投资专家乔伊·海德，近期从顶尖对冲基金城堡投资退休，与妻子及五个子女定居佛罗里达。
• 德裔航天工程师汉斯·科尼格斯曼，长期致力于可重复使用航天器研发，曾是SpaceX早期团队成员。他协助安排了本陶斯的飞行并全程提供支持，着陆后感慨"实际体验比预想更震撼"。
• 企业家尼尔·米尔奇，通过家族企业Laundrylux开启职业生涯，现任非营利生物医学研究机构杰克逊实验室董事会主席。
• 资源行业企业家阿多尼斯·普罗利斯，拥有30多年能源领域经验，身兼佩拉资源创始人、能源革命风投联合创始人、彩虹稀土董事长及战车有限公司CEO数职。
• 计算机科学家杰森·斯坦塞尔，自称"扎根得州西部的太空迷"，长期近距离观察商业航天产业发展。

除乘组外，NS-37还搭载了蓝色起源非营利教育基金会"未来俱乐部"收集的两万余张明信片。本次明信片项目的合作方包括优衣库、ARM & HAMMER小苏打火箭日及"给予孩子世界"公益村。

蓝色起源通常不公开船票价格，部分乘员为受邀体验，而加密货币企业家孙宇晨曾以2800万美元拍得船票。该亚轨道计划此前创下的纪录包括：搭载最年长航天员（90岁的前试飞员埃德·德怀特）、最年轻航天员（2021年与贝佐斯同飞的18岁少年奥利弗·达门），以及首对乘坐商业飞船共赴太空的夫妇（2022年飞行的马克与莎伦·黑格尔）。

太平洋时间上午8:40更新：美国国家航空航天局新任局长贾里德·艾萨克曼特别祝贺科尼格斯曼与本陶斯："致敬蓝色起源团队与NS-37乘组——包括新时代伟大工程师之一@汉斯科尼格斯曼。他的工作助力多人进入太空，很高兴他终于亲历旅程。"

（本文根据12月18日首次发布的报道更新）

英文来源：

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture added a page to the space history books today by sending the first wheelchair user into space.
“It was the coolest experience,” said Michaela “Michi” Benthaus, a German-born aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency who sustained a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident in 2018.
Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket ship lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 8:15 a.m. CT (6:15 a.m. PT).
An initial launch attempt had been called off on Thursday because the flight team “observed an issue with our built-in checks prior to flight,” Blue Origin said. It didn’t provide further details about the issue, but today’s countdown went off without a hitch.
This was the 37th New Shepard mission, and the 16th to carry humans on a brief ride above the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude level that marks the internationally accepted boundary of space. Eighty-six people, including Bezos himself, have now flown on New Shepard. Six have gone multiple times.
Benthaus was one of six crew members on today’s mission, known as NS-37. In a 2023 interview published by the Technical University of Munich, she said she set her mind on becoming an astronaut when she was 10 years old.
When Benthaus lost the use of her legs, she initially thought her flight into space “was never going to happen.” But in 2022, her hopes got a big boost when she experienced a zero-G flight arranged through AstroAccess, a project that’s dedicated to paving the way for spacefliers with disabilities. Last year, she was the commander of an analog space mission conducted at the Lunares Research Station in Poland.
Now the 33-year-old has blazed a new trail for space access. “You should never give up on your dreams,” she said after today’s flight.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post to the X social-media platform that the mission marked “another step toward making spaceflight accessible for everyone.” Phil Joyce, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for the New Shepard program, said in a mission recap that “Michi’s flight is particularly meaningful, demonstrating that space is for everyone, and we are proud to help her achieve this dream.”
Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin has been working for several years to improve accessibility at its launch facility in Texas — for example, by adding an elevator to the seven-story launch tower. A business resource group named New Hawking, in honor of the late wheelchair-using physicist Stephen Hawking, helped lead the way. Blue Origin says it has previously flown people who are hard of hearing, have limited mobility or limb differences, have low vision or are legally blind.
Blue Origin didn’t need to make significant modifications in the New Shepard crew capsule for today’s flight. But launch commentator Joel Eby said the mission team made “a few ground system improvements,” such as providing a bench that Benthaus could use to get into and out of the capsule with assistance from others.
During their 10-minute flight, Benthaus and the rest of the crew rose to an altitude of 106 kilometers (65.7 miles). They experienced a few minutes of zero-gravity and views of a curving Earth against the blackness of space. At the end of the mission, the booster made an autonomous landing not far from the launch pad, while the crew capsule descended to a parachute-assisted touchdown in the West Texas desert.
Afterward, Benthaus said she enjoyed the ride. “I tried to turn upside-down,” she said.
Benthaus’ crewmates included:

• Joey Hyde, a physicist and quantitative investor who recently retired from his career at Citadel, a leading hedge fund. He lives in Florida with his wife and five children.
• Hans Koenigsmann, a German-American aerospace engineer whose career has been dedicated to advancing reusable spacecraft and launch vehicles, most notably as an early team member at SpaceX. Koenigsmann played a supporting role in arranging Benthaus’ flight and occasionally helped her get around. After landing, Koenigsmann said the spaceflight was “actually more intense than I thought.”
• Neal Milch, a business executive and entrepreneur who launched his career through Laundrylux, a family-owned business. He now serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees at the Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit biomedical research institute.
• Adonis Pouroulis, an entrepreneur, investor and mining engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the natural resources and energy sector. He is the founder and chairman of Pella Resources, co-founder of Energy Revolution Ventures, chairman of Rainbow Rare Earths, and the CEO of Chariot Limited.
• Jason Stansell, a computer scientist and a self-proclaimed space nerd rooted in West Texas. He’s been watching from a front-row seat as the space industry has expanded to offer opportunities for commercial spaceflight.
  In addition to the crew, NS-37 carried more than 20,000 postcards submitted by students and others through a program organized by the Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit educational foundation. The featured partners for this latest batch of postcards were UNIQLO, Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Rocket Day and Give Kids the World Village.
  Blue Origin typically doesn’t reveal how much people pay to take trips on New Shepard. In some cases, crew members have flown as invited guests. On the other end of the spectrum, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paid $28 million for a ticket in a widely publicized auction.
  The suborbital space program’s previous milestones include flying the world’s oldest spaceflier (former test pilot Ed Dwight, who was 90 when he rode on New Shepard last year); the world’s youngest spaceflier (Oliver Daemen, who was 18 when he flew with Bezos and two others in 2021). and the first married couple to reach the final frontier together on a commercial spaceship (Marc and Sharon Hagle in 2022).
  Update for 8:40 a.m. PT: NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, congratulated Blue Origin and the NS-37 crew, with special shout-outs for Koenigsmann and Benthaus:
  Congrats to the Blue Origin team and the NS-37 crew–including @HansKoenigsmann one of the great engineers of this new era. His work enabled so many to reach space–I am glad he finally made the journey himself. pic.twitter.com/hgtKRSZpPq
  — Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) December 20, 2025
  This is an updated version of a report first published on Dec. 18.