Blue Origin announced that 18-year-old Oliver Daemen will be the first paying customer to fly on board New Shepard on July 20, after the unknown bidder who paid $28 million to win his seat in the first commercial operations for the program, pulled out because of “schedule conflict”.
Daemen will join former Amazon CEO and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, and Wally Funk aboard the first human flight of Blue Shepherd. At 18-years-old and 82-years-young, Daemen and Funk will become the youngest and oldest astronauts to travel to space.
The winner of Blue Origin’s auction, who has asked to remain anonymous at this time, has chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission due to scheduling conflicts. The company said the auction winner “has chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission.”
Meanwhile, Club for the Future, beneficiary of the amount raised through bidding, announced this week the auction gift has enabled Club to donate $1 million to 19 non-profit organisations ($19 million in total), all of which are working to support the future of living and working in space.
Club for the Future will use the remaining funds from the auction to continue its work on its space-focused curriculum and Postcards to Space program.
“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.”
Flying on New Shepard will fulfill a lifelong dream for Oliver, who has been fascinated by space, the moon, and rockets since he was four. 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.
Oliver, who was described as the “first paying customer” on Blue Origin website, is the son of Joes Daemen, CEO of Dutch private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners. Joes paid for the ticket and was scheduled to fly in the second trip. He gave his seat to his son.
A Blue Origin spokesperson told CNBC that “he was a participant in the auction and had secured a seat on the second flight. We moved him up when this seat on the first flight became available.”
