An engineer from Germany has become the world's first wheelchair user to go into space.

Michaela Benthaus, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, had reached out to a retired space engineer online to see if her dream of being an astronaut was still possible.

He then helped organise the historic 10-minute flight with Blue Origin, the space tourism company founded by Jeff Bezos.

Ms Benthaus and five others blasted off from Texas on Saturday and reached a point just above the so-called "boundary" of space, known as the Kármán line.

"It was the coolest experience!" she said after landing in a video shared by Blue Origin.