Jeff Bezos appears at the Baby2Baby Gala in West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 13, 2021, left, and actor-comedian Pete Davidson appears at the premiere of "Big Time Adolescence" in New York on March 5, 2020. Davidson is heading to space. The “Saturday Night Live” star will be among the six passengers on the next launch of Bezo’s space travel company, Blue Origin. The company announced the March 23 flight on Monday. (AP Photo)
Pete Davidson is heading to space.
The “Saturday Night Live” star is among the six passengers on the next launch of Jeff Bezos' space travel venture Blue Origin, the company announced Monday.
The launch is scheduled for March 23 and Davidson will be the third celebrity on a Blue Origin flight. William Shatner was on a flight in October, blasting off from West Texas and reaching a height of roughly 66 miles above Earth on the 10-minute jaunt.
Former NFL great and “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan flew on Blue Origin's second passenger flight in December, joining astronaut Alan Shepard's daughter on the journey. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, flew on the company's first passenger flight last July.
The other passengers on next week's flight are CEO and investor Marty Allen; Sharon and Marc Hagle; teacher and entrepreneur Jim Kitchen and George Nield, a former NASA manager who has worked to promote commercial spaceflight.
Marc Hagle is CEO of the commercial and residential property company Tricor International. His wife, Sharon Hagle, founded SpaceKids Global, a nonprofit aimed at inspiring children about spaceflight.
Blue Origin flights give passengers a few minutes of weightlessness above the Earth's surface before the capsule parachutes and lands in the West Texas desert. The company has not disclosed the ticket price for paying customers.
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