Who is the youngest person in space? Depends who you ask

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Blue Origin has launched the oldest person, the youngest person and now the youngest woman into space – at least by one metric.

Karsen Kitchen, 21, was among six people who rode to the edge of space Thursday aboard the 26th flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The tourists got to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule parachuted back down near the company’s west Texas launch site.

Who is Karsen Kitchen?

Karsen Kitchen floats in the New Shepard capsule. (Courtesy Blue Origin)

Kitchen is a senior at the University of North Carolina, majoring in communications with a minor in astronomy. She is an intern at Blue Origin and also the founder of Orbitelle, which she describes as "an initiative to encourage women to pursue careers in the space industry."

"My primary goal is to communicate to young girls that space IS achievable," she wrote on her website. "Your path might be different from everyone else’s, but that does not mean it is wrong."

Kitchen’s father, entrepreneur and UNC professor Jim Kitchen, flew into space aboard Blue Origin’s fourth crewed flight back in 2022.

Thursday’s suborbital flight made Kitchen the youngest woman to cross the Kármán Line, which is recognized by some as the theoretical threshold of space, about 100 km up. But NASA, the FAA, and the U.S. military currently award space flight designations to anyone who flies over 50 miles – or 80 km – and, by that definition, Kitchen is not the youngest. 

Who is Anastatia Mayers?

Anastatia Mayers (lower left) peers out the window of VSS Unity as her mother smiles. (Courtesy Virgin Galactic)

Back in August of 2023, 18-year-old Anastatia Mayers was among those who rode a Virgin Galactic rocketplane to the edge of space, about 88 km up. While that’s not as high as the Blue Origin capsules fly, it is past the line that some, including NASA, define as the threshold for human spaceflight.

Mayers, who is from Antigua & Barbuda, flew with her mother after winning the $450,000 tickets in a lottery. They became the first mother-daughter duo to fly to the edge of space.

Mayers is studying at the University of Aberdeen. Her reaction to her flight seemed similar to Kitchens’.

"The entire flight was just exhilarating," she said afterwards. "I remember turning my head and looking out the window, and I was like, ‘Oh my God’. It was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. I wish I could be back up there again."

Who is the youngest person in space?

By the 80-km definition of space, Anastatia Mayers’ flight aboard VSS Unity made her the youngest person to have flown to space, beating the previous record holder, Oliver Daemen.

By the 100-km Kármán Line definition of space, Daemen remains the youngest to reach that threshold.

Oliver Daemen (left) floats during the first New Shepard crewed flight, July 2021. (Courtesy Blue Origin)

Daemen rode aboard a Blue Origin flight in July of 2021 that reached 107 km above Earth. He was 18 years, 11 months old at the time, making him the youngest person in space up to that point. 

The Dutch teen’s father won the ride through an auction and gave the seat to Oliver.

Who is the oldest person in space?

Ed Dwight became the oldest person to fly to space when he rode a Blue Origin capsule to 106 km earlier this year.

At 90 years, 8 months, and 10 days old, Dwight was nearly two months older than actor William Shatner was when he set the record on a Blue Origin capsule in 2021.

The flight was the completion of a lifelong dream for Dwight, who was an astronaut candidate back in the 1960s but was not selected. In fact, no African American candidates were selected until the space shuttle era, when Guion Bluford became the first African American in space in 1983.