LOS ANGELES: A German engineer has become the first wheelchair user to go into space.

Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, crossed the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space, during the 10-minute Blue Origin flight.

Ms Benthaus, 33, from Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein, suffered a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident seven years ago.

“After my accident, I really, really figured out how inaccessible our world still is for people with disabilities,” she said after landing back on Earth.

“If we want to be an inclusive society, we should be inclusive in every part, and not only in the parts we like to be.”

The small, fully automated rocket took off vertically, and the capsule carrying the tourists detached in flight before gently descending to the Texas desert, slowed by parachutes.

It was the 16th crewed flight for Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, which began offering space tourism flights in 2021 using its New Shepard rocket.

Ms Benthaus defended the flights, which have been criticised for pollution, and labelled as space tourism for the ultra-rich.

She told German media: “I don’t see my flight as a tourist flight at all, because we’re conducting science.

“People always think you have to conduct an experiment yourself during the flight, but in my case, I am the experiment, and we’re trying to push the boundaries and move things forward.”

“Congratulations, Michi! You just inspired millions to look up and imagine what is possible,” Jared Isaacman, the new head of Nasa, wrote on X.

After a zero-gravity flight in 2022, Ms Benthaus said: “On the one hand, I have no control over my legs. They kind of do what they want. But on the other hand, it’s also really cool to be able to move so freely again.”

Dozens of people have travelled to space with Blue Origin, including Katy Perry, the singer, and William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek.