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

内容总结：

美国蓝色起源公司计划于北京时间今晚发射其"新谢泼德"亚轨道飞行器，执行NS-37载人任务。本次飞行将创造航天史上新纪录——搭载首位轮椅使用者进入太空。

任务机组人员米夏埃拉·本陶斯因2018年山地自行车事故导致脊髓损伤，这位33岁的欧空局工程师曾认为自己的航天梦想已破灭。2022年通过残疾人航天通道项目体验失重飞行后，她重燃希望。本陶斯表示："这将是重要的一步，残疾人的太空旅行仍处于起步阶段。我希望这能推动航天产业思维转变，为更多像我一样的人创造机会。"

本次飞行将历时约10分钟，乘组将体验数分钟失重状态，并观赏地球弧线景观。除六名乘客外，飞船还将搭载未来俱乐部教育基金会收集的两万余张实体及电子明信片。

蓝色起源公司此前已创造多项航天纪录：去年搭载90岁高龄的埃德·德怀特成为最年长太空旅客；2021年运送18岁少年奥利弗·戴门成为最年轻太空游客；2022年帮助马克与莎伦·黑格尔夫妇成为首对乘坐商业飞船共同进入太空的夫妻。

该公司未公开本次飞行的具体票价，但参考此前案例，加密货币企业家孙宇晨曾以2800万美元竞得船票，部分乘客则通过受邀方式参与。此次任务将继续推动商业航天向更广泛人群敞开大门。

中文翻译：

杰夫·贝佐斯创立的蓝色起源太空公司即将为航天史册增添新的里程碑——今日将首次把轮椅使用者送入太空。

此次新谢泼德亚轨道飞行任务的发射窗口定于中部时间上午10点（太平洋时间上午8点），在蓝色起源位于西得克萨斯州的1号发射场进行。公司计划在发射倒计时40分钟时通过官网开启视频直播。

这将是新谢泼德系列的第37次任务，也是第16次载人飞行。飞船将短暂抵达海拔100公里（62英里）的国际公认太空边界线。此前已有包括贝佐斯在内的80人乘坐过新谢泼德飞船，其中6人曾多次飞行。

本次代号NS-37的六人乘组包括迈克尔拉·"米奇"·本陶斯。这位出生于德国的欧洲航天局航空航天与机电一体化工程师，在2018年因山地自行车事故导致脊髓损伤。

在慕尼黑工业大学2023年发布的访谈中，本陶斯表示自己始终对太空"极度着迷"，10岁时便立志成为宇航员。当她双腿失去行动能力时，曾以为太空梦"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，希望被重新点燃。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。

如今这位33岁的工程师即将开辟太空探索的新道路。"这将是重要的一步，因为残障人士的太空旅行仍处于起步阶段，"本陶斯在领英发帖表示，"我满怀感激，希望此举能推动航天行业观念转变，为更多像我这样的人创造机会。我或许是首位——但绝不会是最后一位。"

在预计10分钟的飞行中，本陶斯与NS-37乘组将体验数分钟失重状态，并透过舷窗观赏漆黑太空中地球的弧形轮廓。飞行结束时，推进器将自主着陆，乘员舱则借助降落伞在西得克萨斯沙漠软着陆。

本次任务的其他乘员包括：

• 乔伊·海德：物理学家兼量化投资人，近期从顶尖对冲基金城堡投资退休，与妻子及五个孩子定居佛罗里达。
• 汉斯·柯尼希斯曼：德裔美籍航天工程师，长期致力于可重复使用航天器研发，曾是SpaceX早期团队成员。
• 尼尔·米尔奇：通过家族企业Laundrylux开启职业生涯的企业高管，现任非营利生物医学研究机构杰克逊实验室董事会主席。
• 阿多尼斯·普罗利斯：拥有30多年自然资源与能源领域经验的企业家、投资人与采矿工程师，身兼佩拉资源创始人兼董事长、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。
• 杰森·斯坦塞尔：扎根西得克萨斯州的计算机科学家、自称"太空极客"，长期近距离关注商业航天产业发展机遇。

除宇航员外，NS-37还将搭载由蓝色起源非营利教育基金会"未来俱乐部"项目征集的两万余张实体与电子明信片，这些作品来自全球学生及其他参与者。

蓝色起源通常不公开新谢泼德飞船的票价。部分乘员为受邀体验，而加密货币企业家孙宇晨曾以2800万美元竞得船票，引发广泛关注。

该亚轨道计划既往里程碑包括：运送全球最年长宇航员（90岁的前试飞员埃德·德怀特于去年乘坐）；最年轻宇航员（2021年18岁的奥利弗·达门与贝佐斯同飞）；以及首对乘坐商业飞船共赴太空的夫妇（马克与莎伦·黑格尔于2022年实现）。

英文来源：

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is poised to add another milestone to the space history books today as it prepares to launch the first wheelchair user into space.
The launch window for the New Shepard suborbital mission is due to open at 10 a.m. CT (8 a.m. PT) at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin plans to start streaming video coverage via its website at the T-minus-40-minute mark in the countdown.
This will be 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 people have previously flown on New Shepard, including Bezos. Six have gone multiple times.
The six-person crew for today’s mission, known as NS-37, includes 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.
In a 2023 interview published by the Technical University of Munich, Benthaus said that she’s always been “mega fascinated” by space, and 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 is on the verge of blazing a new trail for space access.
“This feels like an important step, since space travel for people with disabilities is still in its very early days,” Benthaus said in a LinkedIn post. “I’m so thankful and hope it inspires a change in mindset across the space industry, creating more opportunities for people like me. I might be the first — but have no intention of being the last.”
During what’s expected to be a 10-minute flight, Benthaus and the rest of the NS-37 crew will experience a few minutes of zero-gravity and views of a curving Earth against the blackness of space. At the end of the ride, the booster will make an autonomous landing while the crew capsule descends to a parachute-assisted touchdown in the West Texas desert.
Benthaus’ crewmates include:

• 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.
• 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 been expanding to offer opportunities for commercial spaceflight.
  In addition to the spacefliers, NS-37 will be carrying more than 20,000 postcards, on paper and in digital form, that have been submitted by students and others through a program organized by the Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit educational foundation.
  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).