Someone spent $28 million for a seat on the Bezos space flight and now they’re bailing

By Allison Morrow, CNN Business

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free, here.

In today’s business news: Jeff Bezos’s space flight has a last-minute passenger swap; why it might be time to chuck your Neutrogena sunscreen; and Oatly is having a rough day.

TICKET TO RIDE

We’ve got yet another mega-billionaire’s private space mission to look forward to next week, and already there’s some pre-flight drama.

The passengers on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin trip were set to include Jeff himself, his brother, an 82-year-old pilot named Wally Funk, and an anonymous bidder who put up $28 million for a seat.

But that mystery cadet is backing out last-minute, Blue Origin said, because of “scheduling conflicts.” (OK, really though? You couldn’t clear the deck for one day to go to space? We’re not buying it.)

THE FOURTH PASSENGER

That person’s loss is a Dutch teenager’s gain. The seat will be filled by Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate from the Netherlands, who’ll become the youngest person ever to go to space. (That’ll be one helluvan icebreaker at your first college party, Oli.)

Blue Origin wouldn’t disclose what Daemen paid for the seat. But a person familiar with the matter said the ride was purchased for him by his father, Joes Daemen, CEO of investment firm Somerset Capital Partners. (You’ll probably want to leave that part out of the story, Oli.)

RELATED: Bezos is donating $200 million to the Smithsonian, the largest gift the museum has received since its founding in 1846.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

9%

Oatly’s stock fell more than 9% Thursday after a hedge fund, Spruce Point Capital, accused the company of overstating its revenue and misleading investors about its sustainability claims. Oatly rejected the claims, but the report sent shares down to trade just above $18 midday — their lowest level since the buzzy Swedish company went public in May.

HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

It’s peak beach season, so maybe you just spent 20 bucks on some fancy-looking sunblock at the pharmacy. You don’t want to skimp on something as important as sunscreen — after all you’re protecting your body from cancer-causing UV light and if you splurge on the good stuff you’ll probably want to use it more and thereby become one of those people with their lives super together, someone who eats salads and always does their dishes right away and has extra sunscreen in their bag in case anyone forgets to bring some …

Anyway, yeah, just go ahead and toss those sunscreens out — it turns out the cancer risk was in the bottles all along.

Johnson & Johnson is recalling five of its Neutrogena and Aveeno sunscreens because it discovered low levels of benzene in them. Benzene is a carcinogen that “could potentially cause cancer depending on the level and extent of exposure.”

The labels to look for: Neutrogena Beach Defense, Neutrogena Cool Dry Sport, Neutrogena Invisible Daily, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer and Aveeno Protect + Refresh.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We know Clippy can be polarizing.”

Claire Anderson, Microsoft art director, known internally as an emoji-ologist

Remember Clippy, that irksome little anthropomorphic paper clip that use to pop into your Word document and disrupt your train of thought? Well, Clippy’s back. Microsoft had put him/her/them out of his/her/their misery back in ’07, but the company has decided to trigger an entire generation by bringing Clippy back in the form of a new emoji across all of its apps. As if Outlook needed one more useless thing to ruin my day.

RELATED: Researchers say these three emoji are the most popular on the planet.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• The US government is suing Amazon to stop third-party retailers from selling a range of items, including kids’ PJs that might catch fire and carbon monoxide alarms that might not, like, alert you to carbon monoxide.

• Facebook said it has disrupted a group of Iranian hackers who created fake social media profiles and sent targeted, malicious links in an attempt to spy on Western defense contractors and military personnel.

• Netflix is planning to offer video games on its service within the next year, according to Bloomberg.

• The grocery store salad bar — a relic of pre-pandemic life that rarely satisfied but almost always sufficed in a pinch — may never come back.

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