The winner of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Spaceflight Auction Cancels Due to 'Scheduling Conflicts,' but a college student gets in.
An 18-year-old physics student whose father runs an investment management firm is scheduled to take the place of a person who bid $28 million (approximately Rs. 210 crores) in an auction to participate in billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company's maiden space tourism trip.
Blue Origin said on Thursday that Oliver Daemen will join the four-person all-civilian crew for Tuesday's scheduled trip after the auction winner, whose name was not revealed, backed out due to undisclosed "scheduling problems." Daemen is the first paying customer for the firm.
According to Blue Origin, his inclusion means that the voyage will feature the oldest person ever to fly to space - 82-year-old trailblazing female aviator Wally Funk - as well as the youngest, Daemen. Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos will join them for Blue Origin's suborbital flight.
Daemen is working on getting his pilot's license and will be attending the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands in September to study physics and innovation management, according to Blue Origin. Joes Daemen, the CEO, and founder of Somerset Capital Partners is his father.
The older Daemen "paid for the seat and opted to fly Oliver," according to Blue Origin. The amount paid was not disclosed by the firm.
"Flying on New Shepard will fulfill a longstanding goal for Oliver, who has been captivated by space, the Moon, and rockets since he was four," the firm said in a statement.
Bezos is competing with billionaire competitors Richard Branson and Elon Musk to usher in a new age of commercial space flight in a tourist industry estimated by Swiss bank UBS to be worth $3 billion (approximately Rs. 22,360 crores) yearly in a decade.
New Shepard is a 60-foot (18.3-meter) tall completely autonomous rocket-and-capsule combination that cannot be piloted from within the ship. The launch will take place in West Texas.
On Sunday, Branson, the British billionaire tycoon, rode aboard Virgin Galactic's rocket plane for its pioneering suborbital trip from New Mexico.
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