Meet Oliver Daemen! The Youngest Person To Make It To Space & Back
Blue Origin’s first-ever crewed flight to space was an 11-minute spectacle. While the company sent its billionaire founder Jeff Bezos to space with a crew of three, the youngest astronaut of them is an 18-year-old high school student. Oliver Daemen, the 18-year-old Dutch student, has undoubtedly set a historical record with this space flight.
Not to mention, the crew of Blue Origin’s first crewed space flight also had 82-year-old Mary Wallas “Wally” Funk. Along with them was Jeff Bezos’ younger brother Mark Bezos.
Who is Oliver Daemen?
As you must know so far, the youngest astronaut, Oliver Daemen, is an 18-year-old high school student from The Netherlands. The 18-year-old Oliver is the son of multimillionaire Joes Daemen, the CEO of a private equity firm called Somerset Capital Partners; the firm is based in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands.
Interestingly, Oliver has been a space enthusiast ever since he was four years old. According to a press release by Blue Origin, “flying on New Shepherd will be a dream for the teenager, who has been fascinated by space, the moon, rockets since he was four years old.”
In addition, Oliver graduated high school in 2020 and took a gap of one year. During the gap, Oliver went on to obtain a private pilot license. On the other hand, talking about future plans, Oliver Daemen will start his degree in physics and innovation management at Utrecht University in The Netherlands later this year.
When asked how the young astronaut feels Oliver feels about his first space flight, he replied, “I am super excited to go into space. I’ve been dreaming about this all my life, and I will become the youngest astronaut ever because I am 18 years old. I am super excited to experience zero-G and see the world from above. Thank you so much to the people of Blue Origin for making this happen and making New Shepard.”
Oliver Daemen won the chance of being Blue Origin’s first crewed flight at the price of $28 Million in a public auction after the ‘anonymous’ original bidder pulled out.
