SNL's Pete Davidson is going to space with Blue Origin
Update: Blue Origin says Davidson will no longer join the flight after it was postponed to March 29. Read the latest story here. Our earlier coverage is below.
"Saturday Night Live" star Pete Davidson is again in the news — but this time, it's for an out-of-this-world reason. The 28-year-old comedian is heading to space aboard the next Blue Origin mission on March 23.
Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will also send Marty Allen, husband and wife duo Sharon and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen and George Nield on the rocket.
Davidson joined "Saturday Night Live" in 2014. He also wrote and starred in the Judd Apatow-directed "The King of Staten Island." He's made headlines recently for dating Kim Kardashian. The couple has gained widespread attention on social media and in entertainment news recently after Kardashian's estranged husband, Kanye West, heavily criticized the pair on social media.
Allen is an investor who is the former CEO of Party America, a retail chain, and former CEO of California Closet Company.
Sharon Hagel founded SpaceKids Global in 2015, a nonprofit that aims to inspire students and empower girls to excel in STEAM+ education. Her husband Marc Hagle is president and CEO of Tricor International, a residential and commercial property development corporation.
Jim Kitchen is a teacher and entrepreneur who has visited all 193 U.N.-recognized countries and has dreamed of space since watching NASA's Apollo rocket launches in Florida as a child.
George Nield is the president and founder of Commercial Space Technologies, which aims to encourage, facilitate, and promote commercial space activities. He's also served as the manager of the Flight Integration Office for NASA's Space Shuttle Program.
This is the fourth human flight for the New Shepard program, which first took Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen to space in July 2021. Daemen became the youngest person to go to space, and Funk was the oldest – until a subsequent Blue Origin flight took 90-year-old actor William Shatner to space.
Shatner's October 2021 flight had three others on board.
Another notable celebrity also seized the opportunity to take one of Blue Origin's flights to space. Michale Strahan and five others took a flight in December 2021.
The March 23 launch has a target liftoff of 8:30 a.m. CDT from Launch Site One in West Texas, according to a news release.
"Each astronaut on board NS-20 will carry a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, whose Postcards to Space program gives students access to space on Blue Origin's rockets," the release reads. "The Club's mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth."