There’s a new passenger on the roster for the July 20 launch of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ first crewed spaceflight from his private space company Blue Origin.
Oliver Daemen, 18, will become in a few days the youngest space passenger in history.
Oliver Daemen will be the first paying customer to fly onboard New Shepard, marking the beginning of commercial operations for the program, Aerospace company Blue Origin announced on Friday.
Son of a Dutch businessman, Oliver Daemen will join Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and Wally Funk aboard the first human flight on July 20.
At 18-years-old and 82-years-young, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk represent the youngest and oldest astronauts to travel to space.
The youngster will be Blue Origin’s first paying passenger but is not the winner of the auction for an onboard seat, which won for $ 28 million. This passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, will eventually fly on a future mission due to unavailability on the scheduled launch date, the company said. His place was therefore allocated to Joes Daemen, who had bought a ticket for the second flight of the capsule and who therefore chose to share it with his son.
Flying aboard New Shepard will allow Oliver Daemen to fulfill “the dream of his life”: a Blue Origin press release indicates that the young man has been fascinated by space, the Moon, and rockets since the age of four years. He plans to study physics and innovation management at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands from September.
“We thank the auction winner for their generous support of Club for the Future and are honored to welcome Oliver to fly with us on New Shepard,” said Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin. “This marks the beginning of commercial operations for New Shepard, and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space.”
Oliver graduated from high school in 2020 and took a gap year before continuing his studies to obtain his private pilot’s license. This September, Oliver will attend the University of Utrecht to study physics and innovation management.
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