Saturday Night Live star and young socialite Pete Davidson is in the news again, but this time for something that doesn’t involve Kanye West at all. Pete is heading to space!
He’ll be strapping into Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket as part of its fourth manned flight. According to TODAY, it’s scheduled for March 23 at 8:30 a.m. I’m not sure what that’ll mean for this week’s SNL.
The 28-year-old comedian is the latest celebrity to hitch a ride to space following Star Trek actor William Shatner and NFL Hall of Famer (and NBC co-worker) Michael Strahan. From TODAY:
“The King of Staten Island” star will be part of a six-person crew that also includes Party America CEO Marty Allen; philanthropist and real estate mogul Marc Hagle and his wife, Sharon Hagle, the founder of the nonprofit SpaceKids Global; explorer and University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen; and Dr. George Nield, the president of Commercial Space Technologies and former manager of the Flight Integration Office for NASA’s space shuttle program, according to TODAY.
While on the flight, passengers will experience nearly four minutes of weightlessness as they travel to the edge of space, about 65 miles above the surface of the earth.
Each member of the crew will be given a postcard that was submitted to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future foundation. It works to inspire young folks to pursue a career in STEM. The passengers on board Blue Origin will take that postcard with them on their journey.
I don’t know about you guys, but there is nothing I love more than rich people holding onto my dreams for me. Why would I want to go to space when the ship I worked to build gets to take rich men to space instead?
In a weird twist of irony, Davidson has starred in a sketch for SNL where his character “Chad” goes to space... with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Rather than trying to explain it to you, you should just watch it:
Davidson has been in the news recently with other modes of transportation. He and SNL co-star Colin Jost bought a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry with plans to turn it into some sort of bar.