Blue Origin reveals Oliver Damon’s space travel with Jeff Bezos

[ad_1]

Jeff Bezos walks to where the New Shepherd capsule landed in the Texas desert after a test flight in April 2021.

blue origin

Blue Origin revealed to Jeff Bezos Thursday that 18-year-old Oliver Damon will be flying in place of the still-unidentified bidder worth $28 million at auction last month.

Damon will fly to the edge of space with Amazon founder and brother Mark Bezos and legendary astronaut Wally Funk on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket scheduled for launch on July 20.

A young physics student replaces the auction winner, who Blue Origin said could not travel on the mission “due to scheduling conflicts.” Blue Origin said the auction winner “chosen to fly on a future mission for New Shepard.”

Blue Origin described Damon as the “first paying customer” to fly on New Shepard, with a spokesperson telling CNBC that he “was an auction participant and secured a seat on the second flight.”

“We moved it when that seat on the first flight became available,” Blue Origin said.

The company confirmed that Daemen is the son of Somerset Capital Partners CEO Joes Daemen, who paid for the seat and chose to fly to Oliver instead. Somerset is a Dutch private equity firm based in Oisterwijk founded by Joes Daemen.

At 18, Damon will be the youngest person to fly into space, with Funk, 82, also set to become the oldest person to become an astronaut.

space journey

New Shepard missiles launch an NS-10 test flight on January 23, 2019.

blue origin

New Shepard, a rocket carrying a capsule at an altitude of more than 340,000 feet, flew more than a dozen successful test flights without passengers, including one in April at the company’s facility in the Texas desert. It is designed to carry up to six people and fly independently – without the need for a pilot. The capsule has huge windows to give occupants a view of the Earth below for about three minutes in zero gravity, before returning to Earth.

The Blue Origin system is launched vertically, and both the rocket and capsule can be reused. The boosters land on a concrete pad at the company’s facility in Van Horn, Texas, while the capsules land using an array of parachutes.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 and owns and finances the company through sales of his stock on Amazon.

July 20 is noteworthy because it also marks the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro, get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews, and access to CNBC’s channel. Sign up to start a free trial today.

.

[ad_2]