Jeff Bezos is all set to take a spaceflight on July 20 (17:00 pm IST). He will be accompanied by brother Mark, an 82-year-old pilot Wally Funk and an 18-year-old teen, who secured a seat after the man who paid $28 million for the space travel opportunity dropped off.
The teen, a physics student, is the son of a man who heads an investment management firm. Blue Origin, earlier in the week, said that the 18-year-old Oliver Daemen will be joining the four-member all-civilian crew for the flight.
The anonymous person who was supposed to take the flight dropped out due to unspecified “scheduling conflicts,” Livemint reported. This means that Daemen becomes Blue Origin’s first paying customer.
Daemen said that he got the offer via a phone call from Blue Origin last week.
Wally Funk is one of the 13 female pilots who went through the same tests in the early 1960s as NASA‘s Mercury 7 astronauts. However, she never made it to space as only men were allowed at that time.
The lift-off will happen from West Texas atop a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute flight. Bezos will become the only second person to take a space flight after last week’s Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic.
Earlier, 18-year-old Daemen was supposed to be on the second launch for paying customers but once the auction winner withdrew his name, the company reportedly held on to the idea of flying the oldest and the youngest to space at the same time.
Daemen’s ticket cost, which is undisclosed, will be donated to charity. Apart from this the $28 million was also given to a variety of groups, including studies for space.
“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.