The award for “ Best Small public lecture on a Flight to Space ” goes to Oliver Daemen , the 18 - year - old from the Netherlands who was part of Blue Origin’sinaugural crew flightto space before this week . On the roughly 10 - minute flight , Daemon told Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos what probably sounded like blasphemy to his billionaire pinna : He had never purchase anything on Amazon .
In aninterviewwith Reuters on Friday , Daemen recounted his first flight to space , from when he start out the call asking him if he was interested to the conversations he had with his crewmates , which include Bezos , his brother Mark Bezos , and 82 - class - one-time pilot Wally Funk . Daemen , whose beginner is the CEO of a private fairness house in the Netherlands , became the youngest soul to ever wing to distance , while Funk became the oldest .
The adolescent also holds the preeminence of surprising Bezos , whose Amazon empire has made him one of the richest man in the globe .
New Shepard lifts off from Launch Site One in West Texas with four humans on board. (23 December 2024)Photo: Blue Origin
“ I told Jeff , like , I ’ve in reality never bought something from Amazon , ” Daemen told Reuters . “ And he was like , ‘ oh , wow , it ’s [ been ] a farseeing time [ since ] I heard someone say that . ’ ”
Daemen was n’t originally supposed to go on the flight with Bezos and crew . He was put up the opportunity after the winner of the online auction for the seat , whose identity element is still unknown and who paid a walloping $ 28 million for it , say they could n’t go because of“scheduling dispute . ”Daemen , who was a participant in the auction and had already secured a spot on the second flight , was then moved up on the list . His father , Joes Daemen , paid for the buttocks .
grant to Daemen , his family did n’t bear anything near what the mysterious bidder paid for the chance .
“ We did n’t pay even close to $ 28 million , but they choose me because I was the youngest and I was also a airplane pilot and I also know quite a lot about it already , ” he say .
The teen , who will set out his studies at Utrecht University in September , said he was n’t trusted what he wanted to do professionally , but would consider focusing on space travel . He also told the outlet that his fellow travelers were “ super merriment and all down to Earth . ” Well , considering Daemen ’s referring to a man that wants to stupidlymove all foul industry into space , I ’m not sure I ’m sold on that .
Congratulations on the accolade for that bang-up diminished talk of the town , though .
AmazonBezosblue originJeff BezosOuter spaceSpace tourism
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