Blue Origin picks teen to fly to space after anonymous auction winner reschedules

The fourth passenger to ride with Jeff Bezos on his space company’s suborbital rocket next Tuesday is a dutch teen named Oliver Daemen, Blue Origin revealed Thursday. Daemen’s seat had been reserved for the winner of a $28 million auction that closed last month, but that winner remains anonymous and “has chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission due to scheduling conflicts,” a news release said.

Blue Origin’s launch, scheduled for July 20th, marks the company’s first crewed mission to the edge of space. Four people will launch aboard the company’s suborbital New Shepard rocket from a remote desert site in Van Horn, Texas for a few minutes in microgravity. Blue Origin founder Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation icon and astronaut...

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