Michaela Benthaus, born in Kiel in 1992, works as an aerospace engineer at the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2018, a serious mountain bike accident fundamentally changed her life. Since then, Michi has been paraplegic, but instead of letting this new reality limit her, she continues to pursue her path with determination. In December 2022, she took part in the parabolic flight of the US AstroAccess project, which aims to make astronautical space travel and the space industry more accessible, and experienced weightlessness for the first time. In April 2024, she was one of the first people with disabilities in the world to take part in an analog astronaut mission - where she took the lead role as commander. In December 2025, she finally fulfilled her biggest dream and made space travel history herself: she was the first person with a disability to fly into space on a suborbital flight.

On this evening at the Bergson Academy, she will be presenting her new book entitled "Zwischen Schwerkraft und Schwerelosigkeit" ("Between Gravity and Weightlessness") and will be giving exciting insights into the challenges of her job as an aerospace engineer and her everyday life in the subsequent discussion.

Admission: 6:00 pm

Start: 7:00 pm

End: 8:30 pm

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