By Wire reports

Troy Warren for CNT

An 18-year-old is about to become the youngest person in space, rocketing away with an aviation pioneer who will become the oldest at age 82.

Blue Origin announced Thursday that instead of an auction winner launching with founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday, Oliver Daemen will be on board. The company said he will be the first paying customer but did not disclose the cost of his ticket.

Also soaring on Blue Origin’s first launch with passengers: Bezos’ brother and Wally Funk, one of 13 female pilots who went through the same studies in the early 1960s as NASA’s Mercury 7 astronauts did but were rejected for being women.

The four will blast off from West Texas atop a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute flight.

According to Blue Origin, Daemen took a year off after high school to obtain his private pilot’s license. He’ll attend the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands in September.

“This marks the beginning of commercial operations for New Shepard, and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space,” Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said in a statement.

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