• Oliver Daemen, the youngest person to travel into space, studied at One Air

    At just 18, he has travelled aboard the New Shepard rocket alongside Jeff Bezos, Marc Bezos and Wally Funk.

At One Air we are very proud that one of our student pilots, Oliver Daemen, has become the youngest space traveller in history at just 18 years old

Oliver, a Dutch national, obtained his PPL licence at our pilot school in Spain during March 2021. Only a few months later he has had the great opportunity to fulfil his dream of traveling into space and has become the youngest person in history to perform such a trip.

The launch took place in the Texas desert and it was the first manned mission of the New Shepard rocket from Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin. The rocket performed a suborbital flight with the main purpose of space tourism. The name of the ship refers to the first American astronaut in space, Alan Shepard, who made a suborbital flight similar to the one performed by this rocket.

Oliver shared mission with Jeff Bezos, Marc Bezos and Wally Funk, the female pilot who at the age of 82 is now the oldest person to reach space.

Oliver is one of the passengers on New Shepard, the Blue Origin-owned rocket on its first human flight

We want to take this very special occasion to congratulate Oliver and wish him the best of luck in this new adventure. We can’t think of a better way than to remember one of the most significant moments he had at school and without a doubt in the life of any pilot: the celebration of his first solo flight.

The Blue Origin rocket is 100% reusable and has the ability to land vertically. The capsule where the travellers are traveling separates from the rocket at an altitude of 70 km and traveling at about 3,500 km/h reaching a peak altitude of 100 km during which they experienced 4 minutes of weightlessness during the ‘free fall’.

If you missed it or want to relive this historic moment, here is the video of the event where you can learn a little more about the project, the personal story of the four passengers and, of course, witness the countdown and the launch of the first human flight of the New Shepard rocket. Enjoy!

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