An 18-year-old physics student whose father heads an investment management firm in the Netherlands is set to fly to space with U.S. billionaire Jeff Bezos on Tuesday — taking the place of a person who put up $28 million US in an auction to join the inaugural space tourism flight for Bezos's Blue Origin company. Joining them for Blue Origin's suborbital launch will be Bezos and his brother Mark Bezos. His father, Joe Daemen, is CEO and founder of Dutch investment company Somerset Capital Partners, based in Oisterwijk, Netherlands. The elder Daemen "paid for the seat and chose to fly Oliver," Blue Origin said. Branson, the British billionaire businessman, was aboard his company Virgin Galactic's rocket plane for its pioneering suborbital flight from New Mexico on Sunday.

Source: CBC News July 15, 2021 22:18 UTC