American comedian and actor Pete Davidson, who has made headlines recently for his new relationship with Kim Kardashian, is going to space as part of a six-member team on Blue Origin's next flight next week, the company said Monday.

The Saturday Night Live star will be the only non-paying guest on the voyage aboard the New Shepard rocket, which is set to blast off from the company's Launch Site One in West Texas on March 23 at 8:30 am local time (1330 GMT).

It will be the fourth human flight for the company, which launched its billionaire founder and owner Jeff Bezos to space on its first crewed mission last summer.

Davidson, 28, has been in the news lately for dating reality-star-turned-entrepreneur Kardashian, whose contentious divorce from rapper Kanye West was finalized earlier this month.

West, legally known as Ye, has made no secret of his anger towards Davidson -- burying alive a claymation version of the younger man in a new animated music video.

The other crewmates are CEO and investor Marty Allen; husband and wife Sharon and Marc Hagle, who run a nonprofit and business, respectively; teacher and explorer Jim Kitchen, and George Nield, who founded a company that promotes commercial space activity.

The ticket prices remain a secret, as they have since the first flight.

Named after pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard, New Shepard is Blue Origin's reusable, autonomously-flown suborbital rocket system that is capable of crossing the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, 62 miles (100 kilometers) high.

During the 11-minute round trip, passengers experience several minutes of weightlessness and can observe the curvature of the Earth. The capsule floats back to the surface on giant parachutes for a gentle desert landing.

'SNL' cast member Pete Davidson headed to space on next Blue Origin mission this month
Washington DC (UPI) Mar 14, 2021 - Saturday Night Live star and actor Pete Davidson is headed to space.

The comedian was announced on Monday as a crew member of the next Blue Origin flight into space on March 23, the Jeff Bezos-owned commercial space travel company said on Monday.

Davidson, whose father died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2014. He co-wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical film The King of Staten Island in 2020.

The Blue Origin NS-18 mission, carrying actor William Shatner and three others launches from western Texas on October 13, 2021. Photo courtesy Blue Origin

Davidson will be on Blue Origin's New Shepard-20 flight, launching from west Texas, with investor Marty Allen, former Party America CEO Marc Hagle and his wife Sharon Hagle, University of North Carolina business professor Jim Kitchen, and George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies.

"Each astronaut onboard NS-20 will carry a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, whose Postcards to Space program gives students access to space on Blue Origin's rockets," the company said in a statement. "The club's mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth."

Blue Origin has been in competition with Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk's SpaceX in the commercial space travel industry.

Previous Blue Origin flights to space carried former Star Trek star William Shatner last October and and Good Morning America host and former NFL star Michael Strahan in December.

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