Mystery bidder who paid $28 million for a seat on Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight backs out

The mystery bidder who paid a whopping $28 million for an 11-minute joy ride to the edge of space alongside Jeff Bezos will not make the trip, Blue Origin announced on July 15. According to a press release, Bezos’ rocket company said that the person, who asked to remain anonymous for the time being, had to bow out because of a “scheduling conflicts”. The company said that the winner will instead take a spot on a future mission, adding that the bidder is being replaced by an 18-year-old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen. 

“The winner of Blue Origin’s auction, who has asked to remain anonymous at this time, has chosen to fly on a future New Shepard mission due to scheduling conflicts” the press note read. 

In a separate statement, Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin said, “We thank the auction winner for their generous support of Club for the Future and are honored to welcome Oliver to fly with us on New Shepard”. 

The flight is slated for July 20. Daemen will join Bezos on this journey. He will also be joined by 82-year-old Wally Funk and Bezos’ brother Mark. At 18-years-old and 82-years-young, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk represent the youngest and oldest astronauts to travel to space.

Daemen was a participant in last month’s auction, a spokesperson from Blue Origin reportedly said. Blue Origin arranged for him to go on the second New Shepard flight. However, later, with seats available on the first flight, his trip was re-arranged. According to CNN, Blue Origin did not disclose how much Daemen paid for the flight. However, the media outlet reported that his spot was purchased for him by his father, Joes Daemen, who is the founder and CEO of Somerset Capital Partners, an investment firm based in the Netherlands.

Blue Origin spaceflight 

Meanwhile, Blue Origin is targeting July 20 for its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its spacecraft, a landmark moment in a competition to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel. The trip will last a total of eleven minutes, four of which passengers will spend above the Karman line that marks the recognised boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space. New Shepard is designed to carry as many as six people at a time on a ride past the edge of space. The capsule has massive windows to give passengers a view, spending a few minutes in zero gravity before returning to Earth.

The company has yet to fly New Shepard with passengers on board. However, till now it has successfully carried out several uncrewed test runs launching from its facility in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas. The rocket launches vertically, with the booster detaching and returning to land at a concrete pad nearby. The capsule, on the other hand, floats back to the surface with three large parachutes that slow it down to about a mile an hour when it lands.

(Image: AP)