Rich Dutch Teenager To Join Space Flight Simply Because He Is Rich
The youngest person to ever go into space, a Dutch teenager name Oliver Daemen , will be a passenger on Jeff Bezos' space ride this week. The 18 year old Daemen got a seat because his father paid millions of dollars for him to be there. There doesn't appear to be any other reason.
Originally an unnamed individual was to be on the flight of the Blue Origin spacecraft , after having paid 28 million dollars for the seat, but that person dropped out and will take a later space trip. The seat then went to the second highest bidder , which was Oliver Daemen's father, a wealthy hedge fund operator.
Personally, I don't think letting entitled rich kids ride on the first space flights for "regular (non scientist) people" is the way to get popular opinion behind these ventures.
Next thing you know they will need public relations experts to repair the damage.
======================================================================
related
There's a new passenger on the roster for the July 20 launch of billionaire Jeff Bezos' first crewed spaceflight from his private space company Blue Origin. His name is Oliver Daemen, and he's an 18-year-old aspiring pilot starting his education in physics and innovation management at the Netherlands' University of Utrecht this fall.
Daemen will join Bezos; Bezos's brother Mark; and legendary aviator Wally Funk , who balances out the age range at 82 years old for the first crewed ride aboard the New Shepard rocket, developed and operated by Blue Origin, the company announced Thursday. Mark and Funk were both asked to join the flight, which makes Daemen the first paying customer flying to space with Blue Origin.
At 18, Daemen will be the youngest person to ever travel to space. Alongside him, 82-year-old Funk will be the oldest, making the flight a doubly historic one.
Daemen's attendance on the first fully crewed Blue Origin spaceflight diverges from the company's original plans. The fourth seat was supposed to go to a mysterious person who bought a $28 million ticket at auction, but that person had to delay to a future flight due to scheduling conflicts, Blue Origin said in its announcement. (We still do not know who the buyer is nor why they had to delay their spaceflight.)
Daemen's ticket was purchased by his father, Joes Daemen, the CEO of private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners, CNBC reported . The fact underlines the divide between the wealthy and the rest of the world as the private space tourism industry gets off the ground.
Flying to space on a New Shepard rocket involves a vertical launch sending up to six passengers more than 62 miles up into the sky past the Kármán line, the widely recognized altitude where space begins. Near the top of the journey, the passenger cabin separates from the rocket booster. While passengers unbuckle and experience zero gravity with views that are literally out of this world, the reusable rocket lands itself carefully on the launchpad. After a few minutes, the cabin descends slowly back to Earth with the help of a parachute. The whole trip lasts about 11 minutes.
Blue Origin rounds out passenger list with youngest person ever to fly to space (msn.com)
Tags
Who is online
302 visitors
My personal faith that commercial spaceflight will benefit mankind is hovering at about zero.
I can think of a few reasons to escape earth, but they would be flagged for meta, lol.
He's helping fund the flight so why shouldn't he get a seat.
Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world. The 20 million or so that the Dutch kid is paying for his seat doesnt even amount to pocket change for Bezos.
That Dutch kid is not paying for anything. His mega rich daddy is!
But the whole point of Blue Origin is to take commercial passengers into space for profit. It might seem like these companies are just hobby businesses funded by their billionaire owners but the dream is to eventually bring costs down and make them profitable. When planes were first invented they were mostly funded by wealthy dreamers and I'm sure the first paid passengers paid stupid amounts for the thrill and bragging rights.
Not too different from the flying cars we keep hearing about lately. Expensive novelties for the rich and affluent!
$20,000 per ticket is the cheapest they will ever get it down to according to what I have heard.
As a practical matter, that will be out of reach for 90 or 95 % of all people. Even if they wanted to spend their life savings on a short trip into space.
It is of course a "free country" and they can do what they want. I dont see why the media is fawning over it though.
There are a lot of things that most people can't afford, it doesn't make expensive things bad. 20 grand isn't that far out of reach it's just a choice, for me I'd choose an inground pool over a trip to space many would buy a new car but for some it's all they've ever wanted. Lets face it we really don't want space travel to be that cheap anyway, given the amount of fuel it takes it seems wasteful to me so the less people who do it the better.
One day a company will claim that they own the moon , or maybe even Mars.
Does that make any sense to you?
I think the Chinese Communist Party already may have that in mind!
This kind of endeavor is absurdly expensive. They have to find some way to pay for it.
They did. It's called Amazon.
Maybe the kid is related to Veruca Salt!
That was kind of a obscure reference. Wondered how many folks would get it.
What I think would be a hoot is if Daddy tells him...."Did I forget to mention that I paid with your inheritance."
The kid is good looking and rich. I hope he never pulls a Luster.
Ha
One small step for mankind, one giant leap for me personally...
Haha, a vid from Jon Stewart.
(NSFW)