'SNL' star Pete Davidson joins Blue Origin space launch

Comedian and current boyfriend of Kim Kardashian will head to space later this month

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Pete Davidson is heading to space.

The Saturday Night Live star is among the six passengers on the next launch of Jeff Bezos’s space travel venture Blue Origin, the company announced on Monday.

The launch is scheduled for March 23, and Davidson will be the third celebrity on a Blue Origin flight.

William Shatner joined a flight in October, blasting off from Texas and reaching a height of about 106 kilometres above the Earth on the 10-minute voyage.

Pete Davidson is the next Blue Origin space launch celebrity guest

Pete Davidson is the next Blue Origin space launch celebrity guest

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.

Mr Bezos, the founder of Amazon, flew on the company’s first passenger flight last July.

The other passengers on next week’s flight are 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 space flight.

Marc Hagle is chief executive of the commercial and residential property company Tricor International. His wife, Sharon, founded SpaceKids Global, a non-profit aimed at inspiring children to learn about space flight.

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 near the sleepy town of Van Horn.

The company has not disclosed the ticket price for paying customers.

Davidson, who is currently dating reality star Kim Kardashian, wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical film The King of Staten Island, which was released in 2020.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Updated: March 23, 2022, 3:17 PM