July 16, 2021: Oliver Daemen surely is lucky. He is just 18 and all set to blast off to space on July 20. When he leaves for space on Tuesday, Oliver will make history as the youngest person to travel to space.
The teenager from Netherlands, Oliver will join Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, which will be carrying human passengers for the first time ever.
Daemen is Blue Origin's first paying customer - he bid for the seat at an auction last month, ultimately losing out to an anonymous bidder who paid $28 million for the opportunity. But Daemen is flying in that passenger's place after "scheduling conflicts" arose, Blue Origin said in a blog post.
Mr. Bezos, who just stepped down as chief executive of Amazon, scheduled the spaceflight for Tuesday, to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon.
Bezos’s space flight comes within days of Richard Branson’s flight to the edge of space this past Sunday in a rocket plane built for the company he founded, Virgin Galactic.
More than 7,600 people from 159 countries participated in the month-long auction, which concluded on June 12. The winning bid was $28 million, and Blue Origin said it would reveal the bidder at a later date.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
New Shepard spacecraft would leave for space on Tuesday, July 20 with Jeff Bezos and few other people on board
July 16, 2021: Oliver Daemen surely is lucky. He is just 18 and all set to blast off to space on July 20. When he leaves for space on Tuesday, Oliver will make history as the youngest person to travel to space.
The teenager from Netherlands, Oliver will join Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, which will be carrying human passengers for the first time ever.
Daemen is Blue Origin's first paying customer - he bid for the seat at an auction last month, ultimately losing out to an anonymous bidder who paid $28 million for the opportunity. But Daemen is flying in that passenger's place after "scheduling conflicts" arose, Blue Origin said in a blog post.
Mr. Bezos, who just stepped down as chief executive of Amazon, scheduled the spaceflight for Tuesday, to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon.
Bezos’s space flight comes within days of Richard Branson’s flight to the edge of space this past Sunday in a rocket plane built for the company he founded, Virgin Galactic.
More than 7,600 people from 159 countries participated in the month-long auction, which concluded on June 12. The winning bid was $28 million, and Blue Origin said it would reveal the bidder at a later date.