Dutch physics student, 18, who became the world's youngest astronaut when he flew on Jeff Bezos' inaugural space flight admits: 'I've never bought anything from Amazon'
- Oliver Daemen admitted to the Amazon founder that he is not an Amazon customer
- Daemen, 18, said his revelation caught billionaire Jeff Bezos by surprise after their trip 66 miles above Earth last week
- 'Oh wow, it's [been] a long time ago [since] I heard someone say that,' Bezos said
- Daemen was the 'first paying customer' to fly on Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule
- Daemen's father, Joes, a Dutch financier, had placed the second-highest bid to get his son aboard the craft
- Winning bidder paid $28 million, but gave up the chance to fly due to a scheduling conflict
- Bezos burned through $5.5 billion for the 10-plus-minute trip on the 52nd anniversary of the moon landing
Dutch physics student, 18, who became the world's youngest space traveler aboard Jeff Bezos's New Shepard craft last week, shocked the billionaire by revealing that he had never ordered anything from Amazon.com.
'I told Jeff, like, I've actually never bought something from Amazon,' Daemen told interviewers at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. 'And he was like, ''oh, wow, it's [been] a long time ago [since] I heard someone say that.'''
In what was seen as a tone-deaf statement following the 10-plus-minute, 66-mile-high trip above Earth on July 20, Bezos said, 'So, to every Amazon customer out there and every Amazon employee thank you from the bottom of my heart.'
Team Blue Origin after returning from their mission to space on Tuesday morning in Van Horn, Texas. Oliver Daemen, left, joined Jeff Bezos, Wally Funk and Mark Bezos
Jeff Bezos tosses a candy into the mouth of 18-year-old Oliver Daemen as the Blue Origin crew float in space on July 20
Oliver is the son of Joes Daemen, right, the founder and CEO of Dutch private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners
The comment came while critics contend the commercial space race between Bezos and fellow billionaires Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic, is elitist and that many will never be able to afford the experience.
Hundreds of affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 seat on one of Virgin's space trips.
Joining Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in the chase for space tourists is Musk’s SpaceX. The Associated Press reports SpaceX plans to send its customers into orbit, not on brief up-and-down hops. Musk has yet to commit to a launch himself.
Daemen was the 'first paying customer' for Blue Origin, the company said in an email. The teen flew to the edge of space alongside Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Mary Wallace 'Wally' Funk and two other passengers.
Daemen's father, financier Joes Daemen, had the second-place bid in an auction for a seat aboard New Shepard. The auction winner bid $28 million, but opted to take a future flight.
Oliver Daemen found out he would be joining the flight while on a family holiday in Italy.
"They called and said: Are you still interested?' and we were like 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'"
At just 18, Oliver was the youngest to travel to space.
"We didn't pay even close to $28 million, but they chose me because I was the youngest and I was also a pilot and I also knew quite a lot about it already," said Oliver, adding that he and the crew received just two days of safety training.
Daemen is due to begin a degree in physics and innovation management at the University of Utrecht in September.
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At 82, Wally Funk, left, is the oldest person to have ever gone to space and at 18, Oliver Daemen, left, is the youngest
The New Shepard launched at 9.12am EST on Tuesday. Four minutes later the booster separated from the capsule and the four crew members floated in zero gravity for four minutes before starting their descent. First, three parachutes deployed then another three before the capsule touched back down in the Texas desert at 9.22am EST
The Blue Shepard launches the capsule carrying Jeff Bezos and three other passengers into space on July 20
The capsule descended without parachutes for a brief moment on Tuesday before the first three were deployed
Jeff Bezos and the crew of Blue Origin return to Earth last week
The capsule had to be 'charged' before the astronauts could exit. This involved sending a large static charge to 'ground it'. It touched just over 10 minutes after liftoff
Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen became the youngest person to ever travel to space after the Blue Origin flight. He is shown celebrating with Lauren Sanchez, the girlfriend of Jeff Bezos
Daemen hugged his parents after landing before being given a hug by Sanchez
Bezos and the crew of Blue Origin took off from their base at Van Horn, Texas, at 9.12am EST on July 20 - the 52nd anniversary of the moon landing. Bezos' group ascended for four minutes before the New Shepard rocket booster separated from their capsule, leaving them floating in zero gravity for four minutes.
They returned to earth with parachutes controlling the pace of their descent, touching down in the Texas desert at 9.22am EST.
The journey cost $5.5billion.
Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon CEO earlier this year and will now split his time between Blue Origin and his environmental charity dubbed the Earth Fund and launched in February 2020.
According to CNBC, the program issues grants to scientists, activists and other organizations in their efforts to “preserve and protect the natural world.”
Oliver Daemen, left, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos and Wally Funk appear at a press conference after returning from space
Jeff Bezos, left welcomes up Oliver Daemen to Launch Centre One in Texas
Bezos' Blue Origin crew traveled 66 miles above the surface of Earth - 13 miles higher than Virgin Galactic billionaire Branson, who tweeted his congratulations to the team afterwards.
Bezos says his goal is to move the world's major industries that are damaging the planet to space in order to preserve Earth's environment. He wants to develop space travel like aviation pioneers did with commercial airliners, and says it'll eventually become more affordable.
Bezos has revealed that he's sold $100million in tickets for future flights. Blue Origin will have two more commercial flights this year using the same capsule.
THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE: HOW BRANSON, MUSK AND BEZOS ARE VYING FOR GALACTIC SUPREMACY
Jeff Bezos in front of Blue Origin's space capsule
Dubbed the 'NewSpace' set, Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk all say they were inspired by the first moon landing in 1969, when the US beat the Soviet Union in the space race, and there is no doubt how much it would mean to each of them to win the 'new space race'.
Amazon founder Bezos had looked set to be the first of the three to fly to space, having announced plans to launch aboard his space company Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft on July 20, but Branson beat him to the punch.
The British billionaire became Virgin Galactic Astronaut 001 when he made it to space on a suborbital flight nine days before Bezos - on July 11 in a test flight.
Bezos travelled to space on July 20 with his younger brother Mark, Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old physics student whose dad purchased his ticket, and pioneering female astronaut Wally Funk, 82.
Although SpaceX and Tesla founder Musk has said he wants to go into space, and even 'die on Mars', he has not said when he might blast into orbit - but has purchased a ticket with Virgin Galactic for a suborbital flight.
SpaceX became the first of the 'space tourism' operators to send a fully civilian crew into orbit, with the Inspiration4 mission funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman.
His flight was on a Dragon capsule and SpaceX rocket built by space-obsessed billionaire, Elon Musk and took off for the three day orbital trip on September 16 - going higher than the International Space Station.
SpaceX appears to be leading the way in the broader billionaire space race with numerous launches carrying NASA equipment to the ISS and partnerships to send tourists to space by 2021.
On February 6 2018, SpaceX sent rocket towards the orbit of Mars, 140 million miles away, with Musk's own red Tesla roadster attached.
Elon Musk with his Dragon Crew capsule
SpaceX has also taken two groups of astronauts to the |International Space Station, with crew from NASA, ESA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency.
SpaceX has been sending batches of 60 satellites into space to help form its Starlink network, which is already in beta and providing fast internet to rural areas.
Branson and Virgin Galactic are taking a different approach to conquering space. It has repeatedly, and successfully, conducted test flights of the Virgin Galactic's Unity space plane.
The first took place in December 2018 and the latest on May 22, with the flight accelerating to more than 2,000 miles per hour (Mach 2.7).
More than 600 affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on one of Virgin's space trips. The final tickets are expected to cost $350,000.
Branson has previously said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX.
Richard Branson with the Virgin Galactic craft
SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows - one to the side and one overhead.
The space ship is 60ft long with a 90inch diameter cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts to float in zero gravity.
It climbs to 50,000ft before the rocket engine ignites. SpaceShipTwo separates from its carrier craft, White Knight II, once it has passed the 50-mile mark.
Passengers become 'astronauts' when they reach the Karman line, the boundary of Earth's atmosphere.
The spaceship will then make a suborbital journey with approximately six minutes of weightlessness, with the entire flight lasting approximately 1.5 hours.
Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he finances Blue Origin with around $1 billion (£720 million) of Amazon stock each year.
The system consists of a pressurised crew capsule atop a reusable 'New Shepard' booster rocket.
At its peak, the capsule reached 65 miles (104 kilometres), just above the official threshold for space and landed vertically seven minutes after liftoff.
Blue Origin are working on New Glenn, the next generation heavy lift rocket, that will compete with the SpaceX Falcon 9.
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