Oliver Daemen
Dutch space tourist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oliver Daemen (born 20 August 2002[citation needed]) is a Dutch space tourist[1][2] who flew as part of the 20 July 2021, sub-orbital Blue Origin NS-16 spaceflight.[3][4][5] At the time of his flight he was 18 years old,[6] and became the youngest person and first person born in the 21st century to travel to space. He is a licensed pilot.[7]
Oliver Daemen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 August 2002 Oisterwijk, Netherlands |
| Known for | Being the youngest person to fly in space |
| Space career | |
| Space Tourist | |
Flight time | 10m 18s |
| Selection | Blue Origin 2021 |
| Missions | NS-16 |
Life and career
Oliver was born in Oisterwijk, North Brabant, Netherlands.[6] He attended the Odulphuslyceum in Tilburg and obtained his high school diploma in 2020.[8] He is enrolled at Utrecht University where he started his studies in Science and Innovation Management in September 2021.[6][8] Oliver's father, Joes Daemen is a CEO of Somerset Capital Partners, a private equity firm in the Netherlands.[9][10]
Olivers's space tourist seat on the New Shepard rocket was secured through an auction, making him Blue Origin's first customer (i.e. a person whose flight was not paid for by Blue Origin) and the 8th person to privately fund their non-professional spaceflight.[11][12] Initially, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun (who at the time remained anonymous)[13] won the auction with a $28 million bid for the one available seat on NS-16. However, Blue Origin said Sun could not make the flight "due to scheduling conflicts". Oliver's father, Joes Daemen "had secured a seat on the second flight," said a Blue Origin spokesperson, and when Justin Sun backed out, Daemen's seat was "moved up,"[6][14][15][16]
On 20 July 2021, Oliver at 18 became the youngest person to take sub-orbital first fully automated spaceflight with civilian passengers of approximately 10 minutes in duration reaching apogee 107 km (66 mi).[17][18]