After spending a considerable amount of time on the front pages of tabloids as the number one enemy of Kanye West, Pete Davidson has secured a spot on the science section as well. The comedian will be one of the lucky few to fly into space on March 23rd.
Along with five other passengers, the Saturday Night Live star will board Jeff Bezos’ new ‘Blue Origin’ space travel venture next week. Pete Davidson will be the third celebrity to do so, following in the footsteps of Star Trek actor William Shatner, who blasted off in October on the 10-minute ride of a lifetime.
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. Bezos himself was part of the very first passenger flight that took place last July.
Blue Origin takes its passengers a stunning 106 kilometers into the sky, over 10 times higher than most commercial flights.
The stunning journey brings its passengers to the very edge of the atmosphere, allowing them to experience a few minutes of weightlessness as the Earth’s gravity loses hold on the craft. It then plummets with the help of parachutes, with a scheduled landing zone in the West Texas desert.
The company has not yet disclosed how much their commercial tickets cost.
Meanwhile, fans and bystanders on Twitter were found scratching their heads, wondering why Pete Davidson seems to have become such a media darling in 2021-22:
@petedavids0n1 is the hero of the male underdog that makes good! Seriously, I believe is he is probably fun to hang with and a genuinely nice guy. It’s good to see a nice guy finishing first!! #GoPete I’d work on his and @ColinJost’s boat.
— Orville W. (@DaytonOrville) March 15, 2022
Several voices, however, criticized Davidson for spending presumably millions of dollars on a ‘joyride’:
Now more than ever is definitely not the time for celebrities to be “flaunting their space trips”
Maybe in a different time but definitely not now.
— Paul B/ Barbs (@GeographyNow) March 14, 2022
Oh good, more people going to space to do absolutely nothing 🙃
— Mo/MuchMo (@Mamaogen1) March 14, 2022
And ofcourse, the Kanye memes found their way here as well:
Kanye walking by the blue origin ship pic.twitter.com/QzrS7z9Wiw
— Jan Koller (@Jan_Koller15) March 14, 2022
Davidson has been making major headlines for months following the outbursts of his partner Kim Kardashian’s ex, Kanye West. The comedian’s last major work was the semi-autobiographical The King of Staten Island, released in 2020.
(Featured Image Credits: Blue Origin, @NBCSNL/Instagram)