Pete Davidson, star of “Saturday Night Live,” will go on the next Blue Origin spacecraft, the firm said on Monday. He will journey to the edge of space the next week.
In a statement released on Monday, Blue Origin, the rocket business created by Jeff Bezos, announced that it will fly its fourth voyage with human passengers on March 23. Davidson will be one of six passengers aboard the company’s New Shepard rocket, which will be taking off for the company’s 20th mission.
Mr. Bezos, the creator of Amazon and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, was a passenger on the company’s maiden trip with humans on board, which took place in July last year. Virgin Galactic, another private spaceflight business founded by billionaire Richard Branson, has already flown its founder to the edge of space and returned earlier in the month.
Mr. Davidson, who is 28 years old, became a member of the “Saturday Night Live” cast in 2014. He has also starred in films, notably the semi-autobiographical film “The King of Staten Island,” which will be released in 2020. On Monday, he could not be contacted for comment because of a scheduling conflict.
Blue Origin spokesperson stated on Monday that Mr. Davidson would be flying as “an honourable guest,” while the other five passengers would be paying customers, according to the company. According to the spokesperson, she was unable to disclose how much the other passengers had been charged to board the aircraft.
In October, the actor William Shatner, 90, became the oldest person to fly to space and pass the Kármán line, which is the generally recognised barrier between Earth’s atmosphere and space that is about 62 miles above the planet’s surface. Shatner was the first and only person to do so. Mr. Shatner travelled on the New Shepard rocket with three other passengers on a trip that lasted around ten minutes in duration.
Mr. Davidson will be joined on the voyage by five other passengers, according to a statement released by Blue Origin on Monday: Marty Allen, Sharon and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen, and George Nield.
The former chief executive of Party America, the party-supply retailer, Mr. Allen has worked in the industry for many years. Mr. Hagle is the president and chief executive officer of Tricor International, a firm that specialises in the development of residential and commercial real estate. Ms. Hagle is the founder of the non-profit organisation SpaceKids Global. He is a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches the practise of strategy and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Nield serves as the president of Commercial Space Technologies, a private spaceflight company. In his previous position at the Federal Aviation Administration, he was the associate administrator for commercial space transportation. The FAA is the body in charge of regulating commercial launches like as those conducted by Blue Origin.
