Blue Origin says first paying customer on New Shepard will be youngest person in space
The 18-year-old will join Jeff Bezos on the July 20 flight
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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced Thursday that an 18-year-old would be the first paying customer to fly onboard its New Shepard suborbital rocket — and the youngest person to ever go to space.
In a tweet, the spaceflight company congratulated Oliver Daemen and welcomed him "to the crew."
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"Welcome to the crew, Oliver! We’re grateful to have you as our first customer to mark the beginning of commercial operations," Blue Origin wrote.
In an accompanying release, the company explained that Daemen would join Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos and "Mercury 13" aerospace pioneer Wally Funk.
At 82 years old, Funk will become the oldest person in space since 77-year-old astronaut John Glenn flew aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998.
Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov currently holds the record for the youngest person to fly in space. He was 25 when he flew on the Soviet Union's Vostok 2 mission.
Daemen replaces the anonymous winner of a live auction who bid $28 million concluding a monthlong process.
Blue Origin did not disclose the cost of Daemen's ticket and explained that the auction winner had "chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission due to scheduling conflicts."
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The auction gift has enabled Blue Origin's Club for the Future to gift $1 million to 19 space-related nonprofit organizations.
"We thank the auction winner for their generous support of Club for the Future and are honored to welcome Oliver to fly with us on New Shepard," Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said in the release. "This marks the beginning of commercial operations for New Shepard, and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space."
Blue Origin said that a ticket for the 10-minute, July 20 trip would "fulfill a lifelong dream" for Daemen, who graduated from high school and took a gap year to obtain his private pilot's license before going on to study physics and innovation management at the Netherlands' University of Utrecht.
On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration approved a Blue Origin license to carry humans into space on New Shepard.
When the four passengers lift off from the West Texas Launch Site One facility, Bezos will become the second person to ride his own rocket into space.
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The event will be streamed live at 6:30 a.m. CT.
On Sunday, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson successfully reached space, flying 53 miles above the Earth before safely touching down.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.