18-year old Oliver Daemen to be first customer on Blue Origin flight with Jeff Bezos

An 18-year old student is the first paying customer to travel to space on Blue Origin's maiden mission. Blue Origin sold a space berth for $28 million. The winner of this auction, however, backed out this time due to schedule-related conflicts but wants to fly on a future mission. "We thank the auction winner for their generous support of Club for the Future and are honoured to welcome Oliver to fly with us on New Shepard," Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said.

This is when 18-year old Oliver Daemen was selected to be a part of this flight. Daemen, who is the youngest to fly to space, will be the first paying customer to fly along with Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos and aviation enthusiast Wally Funk on their maiden space flight on July 20.

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While Oliver is the youngest to travel to space, Funk is the oldest astronaut to fly to space at 82. Jeff Bezos' space travel Blue Origin welcomed Oliver onboard and tweeted, "Welcome to the crew, Oliver! We're grateful to have you as our first customer to mark the beginning of commercial operations."

Flying on New Shepard will not only fulfil Oliver's childhood dream but also mark the beginning of Blue Origin's commercial operations. "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," Smith added.

The 18-year old, who has been enamoured by space, the Moon, and rockets since he was 4, graduated from high school in 2020 and took a year's gap before continuing his studies to obtain his private pilot's license. Oliver will study physics and innovation management at the University of Utrecht from this September.

Edited by Mehak Agarwal

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