SNL’s Pete Davidson won’t be joining UNC professor on trip to space that’s now delayed
UNC-Chapel Hill professor Jim Kitchen will have to wait a bit longer to travel to space — and “Saturday Night Live” comedian Pete Davidson won’t be going with him anymore.
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space travel company, has announced that the space flight originally scheduled for next week has been delayed a week to Tuesday, March 29. Davidson is “no longer able to join” the crew on this mission, Blue Origin said.
This will be the 20th flight for the Blue Origin New Shepard program and only the fourth that has taken humans on the ride.
The company said it will announce the new crew member soon.
Blue Origin did not explain why Davidson, whose romance with Kim Kardashian has headlined celebrity news for weeks, won’t be on board. He was going as Bezos’ guest, The Associated Press reported.
Davidson would have joined two other celebrities in taking this roughly 13-minute flight to outer space. Actor William Shatner and former NFL star and “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan previously took the trip on the Blue Origin automated rocket.
Kitchen said he met Davidson and the other crew members earlier this week.
He described Davidson as “a very normal person, just like the rest of us” who was excited about going to space.
Though some could argue Kitchen, a world-traveling entrepreneur, and Davidson, the “King of Staten Island,” are not quite like the rest of us.
The soon-to-be astronauts are able to bring a group of family and friends to the launch site in west Texas, where they will watch the flight from about two miles away.
Kitchen’s daughter Karsen, a freshman at UNC, is probably the most disappointed about this news, considering she had the chance to watch the space flight sitting next to one of the Kardashians or Kris Jenner.
Though, there’s still a chance for a celebrity meeting depending on who Bezos or his company picks as Davidson’s replacement.
