Oliver Daemen

Oliver Daemen (born 20 August 2002) is a Dutch space tourist who flew as part of the 20 July 2021, sub-orbital Blue Origin NS-16 spaceflight. At the time of his flight he was 18 years old, and became the youngest person and first person born in the 21st century to travel to space. He is a licensed pilot.

Life and career Oliver was born in Oisterwijk, North Brabant, Netherlands. He is enrolled at Utrecht University where he started his studies in Science and Innovation Management in September 2021.

Olivers's space tourist seat on the New Shepard rocket was secured through an auction, making him Blue Origin's first customer (i.e. a person whose flight was not paid for by Blue Origin) and the 8th person to privately fund their non-professional spaceflight. Initially, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun (who at the time remained anonymous) won the auction with a $28 million bid for the one available seat on NS-16. However, Blue Origin said Sun could not make the flight "due to scheduling conflicts". Oliver's father, Joes Daemen "had secured a seat on the second flight," said a Blue Origin spokesperson, and when Justin Sun backed out, Daemen's seat was "moved up,"

On 20 July 2021, Oliver at 18 became the youngest person to take sub-orbital first fully automated spaceflight with civilian passengers of approximately 10 minutes in duration reaching apogee 107 km (66 mi).