This undated image provided by Blue Origin shows an illustration of the capsule that will be used to take tourists into space. Blue Origin announced Thursday, July 15, 2021, that instead of an auction winner launching with founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday, Oliver Daemen, 18, will be on board. The company said he'll be the first paying customer, but did not disclose the cost of his ticket. (Blue Origin via AP)
By Marcia Dunn
An 18-year-old is about to become the youngest person in space, rocketing away with an aviation pioneer who will become the oldest at age 82.
Blue Origin announced Thursday that instead of a $28 million auction winner launching with founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday, Dutch runner-up Oliver Daemen will be on board. The company said he'll be the first paying customer, but did not disclose the price of his ticket.
“I am super excited to experience zero-g and see the world from above," Daemen said in a video posted by Dutch broadcaster RTL.
Also soaring on Blue Origin’s first launch with passengers: Bezos’ brother and Wally Funk, one of 13 female pilots who went through the same studies in the early 1960s as NASA's Mercury 7 astronauts did, but were rejected for being women.
The four will blast off from West Texas atop a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute flight.
According to Blue Origin, Daemen took a year off after graduating from high school last year to obtain his private pilot’s license. He’ll attend the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands in September.
His father is Joes Daemen, founder and CEO of Somerset Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Oisterwijk, Netherlands. Both father and son are already in the U.S. preparing for the launch, according to a company representative.
“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 CEO Bob Smith said in a statement.
Blue Origin said the yet-to-be-identified winner of the charity auction is stepping aside because of a scheduling conflict and will catch a future flight. Daemen was going to be on the second launch for paying customers.
The company has yet to open ticket sales or disclose its prices to the public. That’s expected following Bezos’ flight.
The Amazon founder will become the second person to ride his own rocket into space, following Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson by nine days.
Soviet cosmonaut Ghermon Titov holds the record for the youngest to fly in space. He was 25 when he blasted into orbit four months after Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space. John Glenn was 77 when he launched aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998, 37 years after becoming the first American to orbit the world.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Hank the Tank strikes again. The 500-pound black bear that has damaged more than 30 properties around Lake Tahoe last week broke into yet another home in its endless quest for a quick meal.
Researchers report harmful levels of toxic lead were found in the bones of 46% of bald eagles sampled in 38 states. Similar rates of lead exposure were found in golden eagles, according to their study Thursday in the journal Science.
As more and more states end mask mandates and ease other COVID restrictions, discussions about the endemic phase of the pandemic have been growing. For weeks, scientists have warned about how contagious the omicron variant is, but now it seems the tone has shifted and governors are rolling back policies they've had in place for months. Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss what the next phase of the pandemic might look like, how to act now that mask mandates are ending, and if we should be worried about another variant emerging.
Swedish electric motorcycle maker Cake says its mission is to inspire society to adopt a zero-emission lifestyle. The company admits this is a lofty goal that covers a lot of ground - so it's starting with the world of urban mobility and last-mile deliveries. The company also has an agreement in place with NorthVolt to continually improve the environmental impact of batteries for electric vehicles. Stefan Ytterborn, Founder & CEO of Cake, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One retailer and publicly-traded company says it is on a mission to inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand - first. thredUP is one of the world's largest resale platforms for women's and kids' apparel, shoes, and accessories. The company says it is changing the way consumers shop and ushering in a more sustainable future for the fashion industry. Anthony Marino, President of thredUP, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
German vaccine maker BioNTech unveiled plans Wednesday to establish manufacturing facilities in Africa that would boost the availability of much-needed medicines on the continent.
