18-year-old Dutch student to join Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Spaceflight

An 18-year-old Dutchman will become the youngest person to travel to space after securing a seat on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceflight.

As reported by Complex, physics student Oliver Daemen will join Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket as its first “paying customer”. This was after the seat auction’s original winner pulled out to due “scheduling conflicts” with $28 million on the table. Daemen occupied the fourth seat as the second-highest bidder.

Not only will the same flight feature the youngest person to travel to space but also the oldest as expert pilot Wally Funk, 82, will join Daemen, Bezos and Bezos’ brother, Mark.

“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 as quoted by Complex.

“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.”