Bezos' Rocketship Will Launch 18-Year-Old Into Space, Making History Oliver Daemen will go down in history as the youngest person to ever voyage into space.
By Emily Rella •
The space race wages onward as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' inaugural space flight is set to take place this Tuesday.
The highly publicized flight will take place by way of his space exploration company, Blue Origin, aboard the New Shepard rocket ship.
It was announced that Bezos would be flying alongside his brother, Mercury 13 aviator Wally Funk and an anonymous auction winner who paid a cool $28 million for the coveted spot.
But now it looks like all systems are not in fact go for the mystery space-hopeful due to "scheduling conflicts."
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In fact, the seat will be taken by Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, who will go down in history as the youngest person to ever voyage into space at the age of 18.
Riding alongside Funk (who is 82) will make this spaceflight even more historic as it will send both the youngest and oldest person into space at the same time.
Daemen, who has his private pilot's license, is set to attend the University of Utrecht to study physics and innovation management in the fall. The son of a CEO of a private equity firm, he was a runner-up in the auction for the seat and was scheduled to take a later flight, but he was moved up when the previous winner had to drop out.
"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," Blue Origin said in a statement.
Related: Jeff Bezos announced he will fly into space on July 20
The company said that the mystery bidder is set to fly on a New Shepard flight in the future, with all $28 million of their bid going directly to Blue Origin's Club for the Future organization, which aims to continue developing the future of space exploration as well as inspiring younger people to pursue careers in STEM.
The New Shepard rocket ship has run 15 successful missions to space without a crew, but Tuesday's flight will be the first one with humans onboard.
The flight launched will be live-streamed on Blue Origin's site, with liftoff currently set to take place at 9 a.m. EST.
