Not everyone gets to fulfil their dream of going to space. Although, all of us are fascinated by the possibility of it happening one day. Recently, Jeff Bezos fulfilled his dream and took a 10-minute trip to space. Bezos is the former CEO of amazon inc. and among the top 10 billionaires in the world. Bezos sponsored the trip via his company Blue Origin by selling billions of dollars worth of the Amazon Stock. He was accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, 18 year old physics student Oliver Deamen and the. 82-year I’d aviator Wally Funk. Oliver and Ms. Funk were the youngest and the oldest people to go to space, respectively.
Gratitude
After completing the flight Bezos said,” I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this.” He said during the news conference after his space flight. “So seriously, for every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart, very much. It’s very appreciated.”
The Contrast
But the Dutch teenager who accompanied the billionaire, told him on the trip that he never actually purchased anything from Amazon. It was an odd yet shocking revelation by the boy. “I told Jeff, like, I’ve actually never bought something from Amazon,” Deamen told Reuters on Friday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in an interview. “And he was like,’oh, wow, it’s a long time ago I heard someone say that.’”
Luck or fate?
The 18-year old boy was picked after the other candidate who bid $28 million dollars had to cancel at the last minute. Deamen was originally booked for the second flight but got promoted due to uncertain circumstances. “They called and Said: ‘Are you still interested?’ And we were like Yes! Yes! Yes!” Deamen said. The boy had dreamt of going to space since he was a child like all of us. He was fascinated by the developments in science and companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX and many more that could shape his dream into reality. But he certainly didn’t think it would be possible so soon. He followed every new development in space exploration and also got his pilot’s license at a very young age.
Why him?
We didn’t pay 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” he said. The complete crew received two days of safety training that was not too hard according to Deamen. “That was super cool. It’s so weird to be weightless. It was easier than I had expected. It was kind of like being in water,”.
Like some of us, Deamen had a dream that was fulfilled but it is still a dream for a lot of young boys out there. Deamen did it before anyone else and although he does not have plans for the future, he does consider space travel and exploration as a career.