After paying $28m (€23m)  to go into space with Jeff Bezos, a mystery would-be astronaut then decided they had something better to do.

Mr Bezos, the richest man on Earth, will blast off next Tuesday on his company Blue Origin’s inaugural space tourism flight.

He had auctioned off one of the three other seats but the winner has backed out citing “scheduling conflicts”.

The unidentified multimillionaire will instead fly on a future Blue Origin mission after they have dealt with whatever conflict it is they have next week.

Instead, Mr Bezos will be accompanied by Oliver Daemen (18), a physics student, who is now set to become the youngest person to go to space.

The other two seats will be filled by the Amazon founder’s brother, Mark, and Wally Funk (82), a veteran female pilot who will become the oldest person in space.

Mr Daemen’s father, Joes, is chief executive of a Dutch private equity company and took part in the auction, originally securing a spot on the second flight.

Blue Origin confirmed that Joes Daemen paid for the seat and “chose to fly Oliver”. The company declined to say how much was paid.

When the auction winner dropped out, the teenager was moved up to the first flight. The $28m is being donated to Blue Origin’s charitable foundation, Club for the Future.

Bob Smith, Blue Origin’s chief executive, said: “The winner of the auction, who has asked to remain anonymous, has chosen to fly on a future mission due to scheduling conflicts.

“We thank the auction winner for their generous support of Club for the Future and are honoured to welcome Oliver to fly with us.”

He added: “This marks the beginning of commercial operations and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space.”

Mr Daemen graduated from high school last year and has a private pilot’s licence.

The rocket trip would be a lifelong dream for the teenager who had been fascinated by space, the moon and rockets since he was four, the company said.

He plans to attend Utrecht University in the Netherlands to study physics and innovation management in September.

Mr Bezos has been locked in a race with Richard Branson and Elon Musk, his billionaire rivals, as they seek to usher in a new era of commercial space travel.

Mr Bezos will set off from west Texas for a 10-minute flight. Last Sunday, Mr Branson (70) was on Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane when it took off from New Mexico.

He flew above the 80km altitude considered the qualification required for astronaut wings.

Mr Bezos will go higher, passing the 100km-high Karman line – considered the boundary between the atmosphere and space.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]