Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Pete Davidson, Celebrity, Space
Cameron Frew
Pete Davidson is heading to space as a part of the 20th mission for Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
The Saturday Night Live star, 28, will be joining six astronauts on a voyage above the Earth, marking the fourth human flight for the New Shepard program, the company said.
'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,' a Blue Origin press release reads.
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'The Club’s mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth,' it adds.
The mission is scheduled for liftoff on March 23 in West Texas at 1:30pm GMT, with live coverage available on BlueOrigin.com at T-60 minutes.
Davidson will embark on the spaceflight alongside five others: Marty Allen, angel investor and former CEO of Party America; Sharon Hagle, founder of the SpaceKids Global nonprofit and her husband Marc Hagle, president and CEO of Tricor International; Jim Kitchen, a teacher at University of North Carolina, entrepreneur and explorer who has visited all 193 countries recognised by the UN; and Dr. George Nield, the president of Commercial Space Technologies.
The crew will spend a few days preparing for the trip at Blue Origin's facilities in West Texas. After liftoff, they'll travel past the speed of sound, and their rocket will soon detach from the capsule.
While the rocket booster falls back down to Earth, the capsule will continue flying higher into the atmosphere to more than 60 miles above the surface, where they'll see an incredible view of the planet and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.
Blue Origin's flights are suborbital, meaning they don't escape the gravitational pull of the planet (so the capsule won't drift away into the void), so the whole expedition will be over and done in 10 minutes.
Davidson is the latest celebrity to jump on a rocket, coming after Star Trek legend William Shatner, 90, became the oldest person to reach space last October when he went for a ride on a Blue Origin flight, as well as NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, who flew to space in December.
The King of Staten Island actor was spotted at a Los Angeles dinner party hosted by Bezos and his partner Lauren Sánchez back in January, alongside girlfriend Kim Kardashian.
'Pete is excited. They haven’t signed a contract yet, but it looks like it’s going to happen. The details are being finalised. He got on really well with Jeff when they met,' a source earlier told Page Six.
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