- On their Blue Origin trip, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen told Jeff Bezos he’d never bought from Amazon.
- Bezos replied, “Oh, wow, it’s a long time ago I heard someone say that,” Daemen told Reuters.
- Amazon revenue was key to funding the trip; Bezos has thanked Amazon workers for making it possible.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The 18-year-old passenger on Blue Origin’s spaceflight on Tuesday had an awkward admission to former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during the trip.
Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen told Bezos onboard the New Shepard rocket that he had never bought anything off of Amazon before, Reuters reported Friday.
“I told Jeff, like, I’ve actually never bought something from Amazon,” Daemen told Reuters.
Bezos, the former Amazon CEO who credits the company’s revenue with making the trip financially possible, was taken aback.
“He was like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s a long time ago I heard someone say that,'” Daemen continued to Reuters, which notes that Bezos bankrolled Blue Origin by selling billions of dollars’ worth of Amazon stock.
Bezos thanked Amazon workers and customers after Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket touched down again.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this,” he said in a press conference after the flight. “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.”
Joining Bezos and Daemen on the trip to suborbital space were Bezos’ brother, Mark, and 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk.
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