UPDATE 3/18: Pete Davidson's 15 minutes of intergalactic fame have been cancelled. The Saturday Night Live actor is "no longer able to join" Blue Origin's NS-20 mission, according to the aerospace company.
In a tweet announcing the delay of its 20th New Shepard flight, pushing it back to March 29, Blue Origin gave no explanation for Davidson's withdrawal, adding only that it "will announce the sixth crew member in the coming days."
It's unclear whether the comedian, recently seen shooting scenes for horror movie The Home, will join a future Blue Origin flight. No other crew changes have been made.
Original Story 3/15:Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson is heading to space next week. The comedian and actor snagged a seat among five other civilians on Blue Origin's NS-20 mission, scheduled for liftoff on March 23.
The latest celebrity to enroll in Jeff Bezos' space tourism project, 28-year-old Davidson joins the ranks of TV personality and former NFL player Michael Strahan, Star Trek actor William Shatner, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and, of course, Blue Origin's own Bezos.
Davidson is one of six crew members set to embark on New Shepard's fourth human flight next week, alongside investor Marty Allen, SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle, her real estate exec husband Marc Hagle, and entrepreneur Jim Kitchen.
Also on board will be president of Commercial Space Technologies, George Nield, who previously served as associate administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation and manager of the Flight Integration Office for NASA's Space Shuttle Program.
Each astronaut will carry a postcard designed through the aerospace organization's Club for the Future—a foundation aimed at inspiring new generations of STEM students. Upon landing back on Earth, the postcards will be returned to their creators with a "Flown to Space" stamp.
Davidson, who's only experience as a rocketman comes from a 2021 SNLSNL sketch featuring SpaceX head Elon Musk, will spend less than 15 minutes among the cosmos, experiencing brief weightlessness before heading back to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing in the Texas desert, according to CNET.
Live coverage of the mission begins at 7:30 a.m. CDT (8:30 a.m. EST); liftoff is currently targeted for 8:30 a.m. CDT (9:30 a.m. EST) from Launch Site One in West Texas.
This latest mission comes several months after Blue Origin secured $130 million for its Orbital Reef "mixed-use space station," which is expected to launch into low Earth orbit by the end of this decade.