Blue Origin completes fourth successful space tourism launch, without Pete Davidson

Blue Origin successfully launched four space tourists to the edge of space Thursday morning, with the notable exception of actor Pete Davidson, who had been scheduled to take the ride.

Blue Origin successfully completed NS-20, it’s fourth crewed space tourism flight, on Thursday, 31 March. (AFP via Getty Images)

Blue Origin successfully launched its fourth crewed space tourism flight aboard the company’s New Shepard rocket Thursday, mission number NS-20.

The rocket lifted off from Blue Origin’s launch facility in New Horn, Texas at 9 a.m. local time, and carried the New Shepard space capsule to a maximum altitude of 351,000 feet before the capsule returned safely to Earth beneath a parachute 10 minutes and three seconds later at 9:09 a.m. The reusable New Shepard rocket booster landed on the desert floor ahead of the capsule ahead at 9:07 a.m.

Among the four crew members were the first married couple to fly in space, Sharon Hagle and Marc Hagle. Also on board were corporate businessman Marty Allen, University of North Carolina business school faculty member Jim Kitchen, former Nasa flight integration office manager Dr. George Nield, and Gary Lai, a Blue Origin employee who helped design New Shepard.

Notably absent from the flight was Saturday Night Live actor Pete Davidson, who had been scheduled to fly on NS-20 on its original launch date of 23 March, but who had to back out due to a scheduling conflict when Blue Origin postponed the launch until Thursday. Davidson’s seat was offered to him for free by Blue Origin, while the crew members who flew Thursday were paying customers.

Davidson would not have been the first celebrity to take a free ride on New Shepard. In December, US television personality and former NFL football player Michael Strahan took the New Shepard ride to space aboard Blue Origin’s third crewed flight, while Star Trek actor William Shatner flew aboard the second crewed flight in October.