July 16, 2021 3 min read

The space race moves forward as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ maiden space flight takes place on Tuesday.

The highly publicized flight will take place through his space exploration company, Blue Origin , aboard the New Shepard rocket.

It was announced that Bezos would fly alongside his brother, Mercury 13 aviator Wally Funk and an anonymous auction winner who paid $ 28 million for the coveted spot.

But now it seems that, in fact, not all systems opt for the mysterious space, hopeful for “programming conflicts”.

In fact, the seat will be filled by Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, who will go down in history as the youngest person to travel into space at the age of 18.

Traveling alongside Funk (who is 82 years old) will make this space flight even more historic, as it will send both the youngest and the oldest person into space at the same time.

Daemen, who has his private pilot license, will attend Utrecht University 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 catch a later flight, but was promoted when the previous winner had to retire.

“Flying in New Shepard will fulfill a lifelong dream of Oliver, who has been fascinated by space, the Moon and rockets since he was four years old,” Blue Origin said in a statement .

The company said that the mysterious bidder will fly on a New Shepard flight in the future, and that all of the $ 28 million from his bid will go directly to the Blue Origin Club for the Future organization, which also aims to continue developing the future. of space exploration. how to inspire young people to pursue careers in STEM.

The New Shepard rocket has conducted 15 successful missions to space without a crew, but Tuesday’s flight will be the first with humans on board.

The launched flight will be streamed live on the Blue Origin site, and takeoff will currently take place at 9am EST.