Blue Origin Postpones Suborbital Flight After Withdrawal of One Space Tourist

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The launch of the New Shepard manned suborbital mission has been rescheduled to 29 March after one of the space tourists withdrew from the flight, spaceflight services company Blue Origin said on Friday.

The fourth manned flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard was scheduled for 23 March. Comedian Pete Davidson, businessman Marty Allen, entrepreneur Marc Hagle and his wife, Sharon, businessman and mentor Jim Kitchen, and President of Commercial Space Technologies George Nield were expected to join the flight as space tourists.

"Blue Origin's 20th flight of New Shepard has shifted to Tuesday, March 29. 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", the carrier company said in a statement via Twitter.

The reason for Davidson's absence, as well as the amount that the New Shepard's passengers paid for the flight was not reported.

Blue Origin is one of three private US space flight companies. Along with Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin flights are suborbital and only SpaceX has the ability to take people into orbit. The first manned flight of the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft took place last summer with Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos on board.

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