Comedian and actor Pete Davidson has been announced as one of the six passengers who will be rocketing to space with Blue Origin.
What Happened: Space company Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, announced plans for its 20th mission.
The upcoming NS-20 flight is scheduled for March 23, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. CDT with six passengers aboard.
The passengers are:
Pete Davidson: “Saturday Night Live” cast member, actor
Marty Allen: turnaround CEO and angel investor
Sharon Hagle: founder of SpaceKids Global nonprofit
Marc Hagle: president and CEO of property development company Tricor International, husband of Sharon Hagle
Jim Kitchen: entrepreneur and space enthusiast, faculty at University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School
Dr. George Nield: president and founder of Commercial Space Technologies LLC, previously worked for Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Air Force Academy, also served as manager of Flight Integration Office for NASA’s space shuttle program previously
The flight will be livestreamed by Blue Origin on the company’s website.
Related Link: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Books A Flight With Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic
Why It’s Important: The upcoming journey will be the fourth human flight for Blue Origin’s New Shepard program.
Bezos and three other passengers successfully launched to space in July 2021.
Blue Origin has featured celebrities on its most recent flights, with “Star Trek” star William Shatner and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan among the high profile people to take flight with the space company. Sending celebrities to space helps build brand awareness around the company's space program.
Davidson has attracted plenty of attention lately and is a regular trending person on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) despite not being active on the social media platform.
Davidson is dating Kim Kardashian and has been the subject of a social media war that includes posts and mentions in songs and music videos by Kardashian’s former husband Ye (aka Kanye West).
Kardashian will star with her sisters in an upcoming reality show on Disney+, the streaming platform from The Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS). It has not been confirmed if Davidson will appear on the show. The former show “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” which aired for fourteen seasons on E!, a cable channel owned by Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:CMCSA), often featured significant others.
There could be a chance that Davidson’s flight to space ends up in the storyline, bringing additional exposure to Blue Origin in the future. There is also a possibility that Ye pens a post or a song about the flight to space for rival Davidson.
"Saturday Night Live" fans may also remember Davidson's take as Chad as an astronaut on Mars featured in a skit on the show when Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was the host.
The flight by Blue Origin comes as rival Virgin Galactic Inc (NYSE:SPCE) delayed flights until later in 2022. Virgin Galactic has over 700 reservations by people willing to pay six-figure sums to go to space.
The ultimate celebrity space flight could come when Musk boards a flight to space. The world's richest person has a ticket reserved with Virgin Galactic.
Disclosure: Author is long SPCE shares.
Photo: Courtesy of blueorigin.com
