A Future for People With Disabilities in Outer Space Takes Flight

Science|A Future for People With Disabilities in Outer Space Takes Flight

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/science/astronauts-disabilities-astroaccess.html

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A Future for People With Disabilities in Outer Space Takes Flight

People with different types of disabilities tested their skills and technologies on a zero-gravity research flight with the goal of proving that they can safely go to space.

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Centra Mazyck, a passenger who is an incomplete paraplegic aboard AstroAccess Flight One, a parabolic flight that carried 12 people with physical disabilities to see how they would fare in a zero gravity environment.Credit…Al Powers/AstroAccess/Zero G Corporation

By Amanda Morris

Published Oct. 22, 2021Updated Oct. 23, 2021, 12:28 p.m. ET

Eric Ingram typically moves through the world on his wheelchair. The 31-year-old chief executive of SCOUT Inc., a smart satellite components company, was born with Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome, a rare condition that affects his joints and blocked him from his dream of becoming an astronaut. He applied and was rejected, twice.

But onboard a special airplane flight this week, he spun effortlessly [...]