BILLIONAIRE Jeff Bezos is making history.
Bezos and Oliver Daemen will fly to the edge of space on July 20, 2021.
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Who is Blue Origin passenger Oliver Daemen?
Known as the “first paying customer” to fly on New Shepard, 18-year-old Daemen will become the youngest person to fly to space.
Daemen is a 2020 high school graduate who took a year off before going back to school to obtain his private pilot’s license.
The young astronaut will be attending the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands starting September 2021 to study physics and innovation management.
According to the Blue Origin website, Daemen has been fascinated by all things space since he was 4-years-old.
Daemen was offered the role as the first paying customer, after the anonymous Blue Origin auction winner had to postpone his trip to space due to “scheduling conflicts.”
“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, on their website.
“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.”
Daemen is the son of Somerset Capital Partners CEO Joes Daemen.
Daemen’s father paid for the seat in the historic flight but opted to give the opportunity to his son instead of him.
Who is going to space with Oliver Daemen?
Daemen and Bezos will not be the only two making this historic trip.
Aboard the New Shepard rocket will also be Bezos’s brother, Mark Bezos, and aerospace pioneer Wally Funk.
Funk is 82-years-old and is also set to make history as being the oldest person to become an astronaut.
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What is Blue Origin?
Blue Origin is a company founded and own by Bezos after he used share sales from his Amazon stock to fund the company back in 2000.
Since then, Bezos and his company has been working to build a road to space so that in the future, millions of people will be able to live and work in the atmosphere.
As stated on their website, one of the company’s visions is to also preserve Earth.
“In order to preserve Earth, Blue Origin believes that humanity will need to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space.”
“Blue is working on this today by developing partially and fully reusable launch vehicles that are safe, low cost and serve the needs of all civil, commercial and defense customers,” their website continues.
Blue Origin also founded the Club for the Future, a foundation set up in 2019 whose mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM.
