Pete Davidson Is Going to Space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Shuttle

Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson is heading to space with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, later this month.

Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced on Monday that Davidson would be among the crew of its upcoming NS-20 mission, which will mark the fourth human flight for the New Shepard program and the 20th in its history when it completes its scheduled liftoff from Launch Site One in West Texas on March 23.

Davidson will join five other passengers on the flight, including angel investor and former Party America CEO Marty Allen; SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle; her husband, the president and CEO of Tricor International, Marc Hagle; teacher and entrepreneur Jim Kitchen; and the president of Commercial Space Technologies, LLC, Dr. George Nield.

“Pete Davidson joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2014,” Blue Origin notes in its profile of the star. “In 2020, he co-wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical film The King of Staten Island, which also earned a nomination for The Comedy Movie Star of 2020 at the 46th People’s Choice Awards. Pete also appeared in the 2021 film The Suicide Squad directed by James Gunn.”

The SNL comic will be the third celebrity to take the flight, after William Shatner and Michael Strahan. Shatner became the oldest person to ever reach space following the successful completion of his flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in October. It was only the second crewed outing for the ship, which had Jeff Bezos aboard for its first launch.

New Shepard’s first-ever human spaceflight took place nine days after Sir Richard Branson successfully reached the edge of space aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket plane. Bezos congratulated Branson and his crew on Instagram at the time, saying he couldn’t wait to “join the club.” However, Blue Origin has other ambitions outside of its space tourism ventures.

The company plans to build a commercial space station called Orbital Reef in partnership with multiple other space companies, including Boeing, Sierra Space and several more. The outpost is scheduled to be up and running by the late 2030s, aligning itself as a possible successor to the International Space Station, which is expected to be retired in 2030.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

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