{"id":7418,"date":"2021-07-27T11:04:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T11:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=7418"},"modified":"2021-07-27T11:04:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T11:04:32","slug":"going-to-space-at-age-18-this-dutch-guy-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/going-to-space-at-age-18-this-dutch-guy-did-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Going to Space at Age 18 &#8211; This Dutch Guy did it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a good chance that you heard about it: The\u00a0<em>ruimtevlucht\u00a0<\/em>(space flight) of Jeff Bezos and three other\u00a0<em>passagiers <\/em>(passengers). One of them was 18-year old Dutchman Oliver Daemen, whose father secured him a spot in the bidding process for the ticket. At his young age, it makes him the youngest person in the\u00a0<em>ruimte <\/em>ever! What did he have to say about the experience?<\/p>\n<h1><strong><em>Het was echt niet normaal!<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Oliver vertelt over zijn reis naar de ruimte\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A9m7jHilzxI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Oliver is from the\u00a0<em>dorp\u00a0<\/em>(village) Oisterwijk in Dutch province Noord-Brabant. He just finished his <em>vwo-diploma <\/em>(VWO diploma, a Dutch high school degree), and begins his university studies in <em>natuurwetenschappen en innovatiemanagement\u00a0<\/em>(physics and innovation management) at the University of Utrecht this summer. His father is a\u00a0<em>vastgoedondernemer\u00a0<\/em>(real estate entrepreneur), who paid a\u00a0<em>miljoenenbedrag\u00a0<\/em>(an amount in the millions) for the seat on the Blue Origin rocket.<\/p>\n<p>So what did Oliver have to say about the 11-minute trip to space? Upon his return to <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/6-things-you-need-to-know-about-schiphol-airport\/\">Schiphol<\/a>, Oliver said: <em>&#8220;Het was echt niet normaal!&#8221; <\/em>(&#8220;It really was not normal&#8221;, which roughly means: It was crazy!). Their stay in the\u00a0<em>ruimte\u00a0<\/em>lasted only for about\u00a0<em>drie minuten\u00a0<\/em>(three minutes), when they were\u00a0<em>gewichtsloos\u00a0<\/em>(weightless). &#8220;Het voelde veel natuurlijker dan je zou denken en het was heel donker, en dan zie je zo een blauwe laag over de aarde heen zitten, en dan zie je ook best wel veel wolken, dus je kon niet helemaal heel goed herkennen waar precies wat was.&#8221; (&#8220;It felt much more natural than you&#8217;d think and it was very dark, and then you see this blue layer around the earth, and you also see quite many clouds, so you could not really see well where exactly what was.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>Many might look at this and think that\u00a0<em>ruimtereizen\u00a0<\/em>(space trips) are\u00a0<em>onzin\u00a0<\/em>(nonsense). Oliver looks at that differently, he said it was a &#8220;once in a lifetime opportunity&#8221; for him.<\/p>\n<p>This trip didn&#8217;t make the\u00a0<em>passagiers\u00a0<\/em>real\u00a0<em>astronauten\u00a0<\/em>(astronauts), as they did not perform any safety activities in space. The FAA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/26\/science\/jeff-bezos-astronaut-definition.html#:~:text=On%20the%20same%20day%20that,the%20agency%20explains%2C%20%E2%80%9CThe%20F.A.A.\">changed the definition<\/a> on the day of the flight to include this new criterium.<\/p>\n<p>Do you want to learn more about the trip and\u00a0<em>ruimtetoerisme\u00a0<\/em>(space tourism)? Dutch YouTube tech channel <em>Bright <\/em>made a nice explainer on it before the rocket lifted off:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ruimtetoerisme barst los: willen we dit?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rLns55qatMs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1><strong>The youngest, but not the first Dutch person in space<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_7419\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/nl\/photos\/astronaut-ruimtevaart-esa-kosmonaut-1014076\/\" aria-label=\"Astronaut 1014076 1920 1024x768\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7419\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7419\"  alt=\"space bezos trip kuipers\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-1024x768.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/nl\/users\/ajel-676477\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1014076\">Edward Lich<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/nl\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=1014076\">Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>While Oliver might be the youngest person to ever reach space, and therefore also the youngest Dutch person, he is not the first Dutch person. This was Dutch-born astronaut Lodewijk van den Berg, who flew on the April 29, 1985 Challenger space shuttle mission. At the time, he had given up his Dutch nationality for the American one, and so he was not Dutch when taking flight. The first Dutch national was Wubbo Ockels, who flew just half a year after Van den Berg, also on the Challenger. However, the most famous Dutch astronaut by far is Andr\u00e9 Kuipers.<\/p>\n<p>He is an active\u00a0<em>ruimtevaarder\u00a0<\/em>(&#8220;space driver&#8221;, astronaut) who has over 200 days in space under his belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-350x263.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"space bezos trip kuipers\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-350x263.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/07\/astronaut-1014076_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>There&#8217;s a good chance that you heard about it: The\u00a0ruimtevlucht\u00a0(space flight) of Jeff Bezos and three other\u00a0passagiers (passengers). One of them was 18-year old Dutchman Oliver Daemen, whose father secured him a spot in the bidding process for the ticket. At his young age, it makes him the youngest person in the\u00a0ruimte ever! What did&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/going-to-space-at-age-18-this-dutch-guy-did-it\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":7419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,3590,27711,27714,2500,547385],"tags":[358770,551523,161],"class_list":["post-7418","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","category-news-2","category-science","category-travel-geography","tag-dutch-news","tag-space","tag-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7420,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7418\/revisions\/7420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}