Blue Origin has announced who will replace Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson on next week’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship launch. On Monday, the company announced that Gary Lai, the chief architect for the New Shepard launch system, will be taking Davidson’s seat for the mission set to launch on March 29th. Lai previously participated in last April’s rehearsal for crewed flight at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas, at that time strapping into the seats in the crew capsule as part of a practice run but departed the vehicle and launchpad just before liftoff. Now, Lai will get a chance to fly for real.
“I am deeply humbled, grateful and excited by the invitation to fly on new Shepard on the NS-20 mission,” Lai wrote on LinkedIn (via Yahoo!) Lai joined Blue Origin in 2004 and was among the company’s first 20 employees. He currently is the senior director and chief architect of the New Shepard program and has had a role in developing all of Blue Origin’s product lines.
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Earlier this month it was announced that Davidson had been confirmed to be among the crew members for the commercial spaceflight company’s upcoming mission, the fourth manned mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard program and the 20th mission overall. However, just a few days later the launch date for the mission was shifted from March 23rd to March 29th and the schedule change made it where Davidson, who is currently filming The Purge creator James DeMonaco’s latest horror movie “The Home”, was no longer able to participate. In addition to Lai, other crew members for the scheduled flight include angel investor and former Party America CEO Marty Allen, SpaceKids Global Founder Sharon Hagle and her husband, Tricor International CEO Marc Hagle, entrepreneur Jim Kitchen, and former FAA associate administrator and Commercial Space Technologies founder George Nield.
Information about the upcoming Blue Origin New Shepard launch is as follows: “Live launch coverage begins on BlueOrigin.com at T-60 minutes. Liftoff is currently targeted for 8:30 a.m. CDT / 13:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas. Each astronaut on board 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 Club’s mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth.”
Will you be watching the upcoming launch even without Davidson on board? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
