UPDATE (3/17): Pete Davidson is no longer heading to space with Blue Origin. The company announced the news less than a week before the actor was scheduled to embark on the trip. “Blue Origin’s 20th flight of New Shepard has shifted to Tuesday, March 29,” the space exploration company said in a statement on Thursday. “Pete Davidson is no longer able to join the NS-20 crew on this mission. We will announce the sixth crew member in the coming days.” No reason was given for the actor leaving the mission.
***
In the latest edition of life imitating art, Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has recruited Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson to be part of a six-person crew heading to the edge of space on March 23. Davidson previously appeared in a skit about space travel — and very rich men — when Elon Musk appeared on SNL.
A Staten Island native, Davidson will be packed into the NS-20 flight alongside Marty Allen, the former CEO of Party America and California Closet Company; Jim Kitchen, a teacher and entrepreneur who travels a lot; Dr. George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies; Sharon Hagle, founder of nonprofit SpaceKids Global, and her husband Marc Hagle, CEO of development corporation Tricor International.
The news comes after a weekend of ongoing drama between Davidson and rapper Kanye West, his girlfriend Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband. West most recently accused Kardashian of withholding custody of their kids and claimed that Davidson texted him “bragging about being in bed” Kardashian. Maybe Davidson just needs some space from all the fighting — literally.
The New Shepard flight marks the fourth human mission in the program’s history. A multi-dimensional company, Blue Origin is looking to the sky for the future while their rockets burn a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that directly contributes to large amounts of heat and gas emissions that linger for around two to three years in the Earth’s continuously warming atmosphere, according to a report from The Guardian.
The trip, like the 19 that Blue Origin has launched before it, might be bad for the planet, but maybe it will at least make for good “Weekend Update” material for next week’s Saturday Night Live.