The 28-year-old comic and boyfriend of Kim Kardashian was due to be one of the celebrity guests on the high-profile cosmic trip alongside five paying customers aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
However, the company announced earlier this month that it had to delay the flight till March 29 and said that Davidson would no longer be taking part.
“Blue Origin’s 20th flight of New Shepard has shifted to Tuesday, March 29,” the company tweeted, adding: “Pete Davidson is no longer able to join the NS-20 crew on this mission. We will announce the sixth crew member in the coming days.”
Blue Origin hasn’t revealed the exact reason for Davidson’s omission from the trip, but confirmed that Lai will be replacing him “on the vehicle he’s spent 18 years designing, developing, testing, and flying.”
In a further tweet, the company described Lai as “a friend, mentor, and hero to all of us.”
Scheduling difficulties may be the reason for Davidson having to pull out, as the actor is currently filming a horror movie in New Jersey, titled The Home. The film is directed by James DeMonaco who is the creator of The Purge franchise.
Newsweek has contacted Davidson’s representatives for comment.
The actor has been a consistent pop culture icon in recent months as his high-profile relationship with Kardashian saw him become embroiled in a public feud with her estranged husband, Kanye West.
Lai is responsible for the design and development of “many of the key safety systems on the Crew Capsule,” according to the company’s website.
“I am deeply humbled, grateful and excited by the invitation to fly on New Shepard on the NS-20 mission,” Lai wrote in a post on LinkedIn following the announcement that he would be going on the flight.
The other crew members on the trip are married couple Sharon and Marc Hagle, who are the CEO and founder of Tricor International and SpaceKids Global, respectively.
Teacher, entrepreneur and explorer Jim Kitchen is also on the flight, along with George Nield, a former associate administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. He is now president of Commercial Space Technologies.
