Blue Origin's $28m Space Auction Winner Took A Raincheck So This 18yo Goes Instead

The winner of Blue Origin's auction, who spent $28 million on a ticket aboard New Shepard's first crewed flight, has opted not to join Jeff Bezos aboard the spacecraft's maiden voyage. The unnamed winner has blamed "scheduling conflicts" for the decision to take a later flight, Blue Origin said today, as it announced the 18 year old who will take their place.

That young passenger is Oliver Daemen, who graduated high school in 2020. He also has a private pilot's license, and will be headed to the University of Utrecht in September to study physics and innovation management.

Before that, though, he'll strap in next to Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and Wally Funk on New Shepard. He'll be the first paying customer to fly onboard Blue Origin's rockets.

"This marks the beginning of commercial operations for New Shepard," Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin, said today, "and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space."

It's unclear just how much Daemen paid for his seat aboard New Shepard. Blue Origin hasn't confirmed general ticket prices once its commercial space tourism service begins, though unofficial estimates have pegged the number at around $500,000. The company had also planned to contact the runners-up in the auction to sell them spots on future flights.

So far, it's still unknown as to just who paid $28 million for that first ticket – or, indeed, what sort of "scheduling conflicts" could be so important as to make someone decide not to take advantage of their spot on such a historic mission. According to Blue Origin, that winner "has asked to remain anonymous at this time."

The launch is scheduled for July 20, with New Shepard blasting off and beginning a roughly ten minute flight. If all goes to plan, it'll pass the Kármán Line – the 62 mile (330,000 feet) boundary above the planet's mean sea level – which is one of the definitions of where space begins. That has proved to be a thorny topic as different companies take their first crewed flights into space.

Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson, for example, pipped Bezos to the post by joining VSS Unity's flight last Sunday. However that did not – by design – reach the Kármán Line, leading to suggestions that, while Branson may have experienced zero-gravity, he didn't actually make it to space.