NASA

Count Sen. Martin Heinrich among those who think there's something otherworldly about the UFO sightings in our skies ... he says the technology is too advanced for humans.

We got the Senator from New Mexico on Capitol Hill Wednesday and asked him about the UFO sightings pilots in the Armed Forces say are becoming very common.

Sen. Heinrich is definitely intrigued by the new UFO footage, telling us it's something Congress needs to investigate, because everything he's seeing tells him the crafts aren't being built or piloted by people.

It's interesting ... the Senator says if foreign governments had this kind of advanced technology, there would be other indications of their capabilities, and he says that's just not the case.

As we reported ... Sen. Marco Rubio says UFOs pose a risk to our national security and it's an issue that needs addressing. He says some senators aren't taking UFOs seriously, but Sen. Heinrich is definitely not in that boat.

The Vegas odds paid off this time, because debris from the Chinese Long March rocket conformed to the probability it would crash down on water.

Parts from the wayward booster landed in the Indian Ocean, pretty close to the Maldives.

It's good news because no one had any idea where the space junk would hit. It was out of control in space and the re-entry was, to say the least, dicey.

There's unconfirmed video that seems to show debris falling from the sky over the Dead Sea in Jordan.

The biggest piece of debris was about as big as a Mack truck, so it could have done serious damage if it landed in a populated area.

China's Manned Space Engineering Office claims most of the debris burned up during re-entry, but clearly not all of it did.

This is one of the biggest, uncontrolled objects from space ever to hit the Earth, and that includes meteors, folks!

China has been criticized for allowing a booster to just float around in space. There was no plan to safely bring it back to Earth.

There was a spectacular site above the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday, when the SpaceX Dragon capsule careened and then floated into the sea with 4 astronauts on board.

The 4 astronauts -- 3 from the U.S. and 1 from Japan -- ended their 167-day mission ... the longest ever for a crew capsule launching from the United States.

The Dragon capsule -- named Resilience -- had a welcoming party at the ready. Several ships were nearby to recover the capsule and the astronauts. It was a perfect landing, judging by how close the capsule touched down next to the ships.

The seamen jumped into action and recovered the spaceship in a half an hour. Some people were so impressed with the speed, they likened it to a pit stop at a car race.

The folks at Mission Control were ecstatic ... sending a message to astronauts ... “We welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX. For those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you’ve earned 68 million miles on this voyage.”

Spacecraft Commander Mike Hopkins was more than willing to accept the perk ...“We’ll take those miles. Are they transferrable?”

Elon Musk made a startling comment about the impending voyage to Mars, saying, "A bunch of people will probably die."

Elon was deep in conversation with Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize Foundation, when they talked about Musk's dream for humans to set foot on the Red Planet by 2026.  NASA's projection was 2033.

Elon waxed a little poetic, saying, "Going to Mars reads like that advert for Shackleton going to the Antarctic. You know it is dangerous. It's uncomfortable, and it's a long journey."

And then, he lowered the boom ... "You might not come back alive, but it is a glorious adventure and it will be an amazing experience ... Yeah, honestly, a bunch of people will probably die in the beginning."

Thing is ... he may be truth-telling, despite people not wanting to hear it.

Elon's take is that the upside justifies the downside ... "For the first time in the four and a half billion year history of Earth it has been possible to extend life beyond Earth and make life multi-planetary."

He went on ... "Humanity is the agent of life and we have an obligation to ensure the creatures of Earth continue even if there is a calamity on Earth, whether it is man-made or a natural calamity - if you look at the fossil record there are many mass extinctions. It is about ensuring we pass that threshold where it is self-sustaining if some calamity prevents the ships from going there."

Musk, who was barefoot during the interview, ominously asked, "What comes first - a self-sustaining city on Mars or World War Three?"

It's another small step for man and giant leap for mankind -- this on Mars, where NASA just pulled off the first-ever powered flight on another planet ... courtesy of a mini helicopter.

NASA flew the aircraft, dubbed Ingenuity, and beamed in the live stream first thing Monday morning. Sending it instructions all the way here (some 180 million miles away) ... this little chopper got up off the ground at about 10 feet!

It's a historic feat ... marking the first time we've ever flown something that wasn't a rocket on another celestial body in our solar system. Think of it as the Wright Brothers flying the first plane on Earth -- this is like that, only it happened on Mars, with no one aboard ... and slightly better video!

As for the specs of how NASA was able to make it happen ... it sounds like they just had to tweak a few things for Ingenuity to achieve liftoff on the Red Planet.

For starters, Mars' atmosphere is quite thin compared to ours -- only about 1% as dense -- and it also has less gravity than what we're working with here. So, to account for that, NASA built this thing with much bigger blades that rotate incredibly rapidly ... around 2,537 RPM.

Now that they know Ingenuity can indeed get some air ... the plan is to test its capabilities and see if it can help us navigate and explore the mysterious red planet some more.

Richard Branson's space tourism company is doing something NASA has struggled with for a long time -- making a rocket ship actually look cool ... because, hey, optics are important.

Virgin Galactic just unveiled its latest spaceship ... the beginning of what they're calling a new series of spacecraft vehicles that are supposed to be revolutionary. This model's been dubbed VSS Imagine ... and it's been designed to lead the pack in the company's fleet.

What's different about this rocket -- the third such spacecraft Virgin has made thus far -- is that it's supposedly quicker to assemble, and quicker to do maintenance on ... so they can get more of them up in the air in an efficient manner.

Virgin says it can't produce VSS Imagine on an assembly line quite yet, but based on this prototype ... they can start cranking out a lot of them sooner, which will advance their plans to shoot paying customers off into space.

Virgin hopes Imagine follows in the successful path of its VSS Unity ship which has completed a couple spaceflights in recent years ... with a 3rd expected in May.

All of Virgin's spaceships have looked pretty sleek in appearance -- but VSS Imagine tops them all with an out-of-this-world design that looks like it's straight out of "The Jetsons."

Compare that to rocket ships that have been part of NASA's Space Shuttle program for the last 30 odd years ... and you can immediately see the difference. The Space Shuttle ships have been bulky and a bit of an eyesore through the years, and haven't changed a whole lot in terms of design, externally, anyway.

Granted, NASA is the OG of space travel in this country -- and they've had a lot of historical success. Still, they should upgrade their look if they wanna capture the youth's imagination again.

Neil deGrasse Tyson just rained all over Baker Mayfield's alien parade ... saying the Cleveland Browns quarterback most likely saw a meteor -- NOT a UFO.

Booooooooo.

Remember, Mayfield tweeted with "almost 100%" certainty he and his wife saw a UFO Wednesday night ... saying they saw a "very bright ball of light going straight down out of the sky."

But, Tyson -- certified science nerd -- says Baker needs to come back down the earth ... and suggests the QB brushes up on his meteor knowledge.

"Okay, so what he should do is go look at what meteors look like and most of them look like simple shooting stars," Tyson said Friday on FS1's 'The Herd' with Colin Cowherd.

"But, the occasional one, the occasional BIGGER one is called a bolide. We have special words for them and they flash through the sky. It takes just half a second! It flashes through the sky and at the end, sometimes they explode."

In other words, don't expect an alien invasion just yet, Bake.

Tyson says there are a bunch of amateur astronomers who spend countless hours looking in the sky ... and there would be a lot more hubbub if it really were anything out of the ordinary.

"I think if there were aliens visiting, the astronomer community would catch it immediately."

Elon Musk founding his City of Starbase, Texas is getting support from at least one local official ... who says the move could lead to a serious job and tourism boom.

Joey Lopez, one of four elected commissioners for Cameron County, tells TMZ ... Elon's SpaceX has already made an impact -- currently known as the unincorporated area of Boca Chica Village -- by attracting tourists who come watch rocket launches.

Hopefully, the rockets will do better than the one Wednesday ... an unmanned test flight of a SpaceX rocket Elon hoped would go to Mars exploded after trying to stick a clean landing at the South Texas landing facility.

Lopez says SpaceX has also created jobs in the area. He says in June of 2020 there were 600 county residents who worked for SpaceX. That number's swelled to as high as 1,800 ... according to Lopez.

And, if Elon starts his own city ... Lopez sees that number skyrocketing. #PunIntended.

What's more ... Lopez says Elon's already ingrained himself in the community ... like recently helping save sea turtles during Texas' recent deadly winter storm. He also provided generators that helped maintain water pressure in two Cameron County towns.

As we reported ... a county judge has already said Elon must comply with all state laws if he wants to own a piece of Texas. Lopez says Elon has a lot of work to do if he wants Boca Chica Village Starbase to become a self-sufficient city.

Elon Musk has some expensive bugs to fix -- another unmanned test flight of a SpaceX rocket he hoped would go to Mars went up in flames.

SpaceX nearly completed the successful test flight Wednesday at its facility in South Texas. The plan is for this prototype spacecraft, called SN10, to eventually venture all the way to Mars -- but several minutes after a clean launch and return trip to Earth ... it exploded.

SN10's launch was delayed due to a sputtering engine earlier in the day, but fired up for lift-off around 3 PM PT. It completed its route -- which wasn't meant to go too far up -- and touched down again, seemingly without a hitch.

The official SpaceX broadcast cut out before folks at home could see it blow up, but other streams that were monitoring the action live sure caught the blast.

You can hear someone who was watching it talk about a methane leak, but SpaceX has not said what caused the blast.

We've seen this before with SpaceX's Starship test flights -- this exact thing happened last year at the same facility ... with the same result.

They gave it another go just last month, and the results were identical ... fireballs. Again, these were all unmanned launches.

The first super clear images from NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover are in, and ... wow!

You can see it's going to be a rocky road -- literally -- for the Rover when it gets going and cruises around the red planet. NASA had a little fun with these images when the spacecraft's Twitter account (yes, it's got its own) tweeted the images ... saying, "I love rocks. Look at these right next to my wheel. Are they volcanic or sedimentary? What story do they tell? Can’t wait to find out." Same, TBH.

NASA also showed a clear image of the open horizon. The pics come one Earth day after the Mars Rover stuck the landing Thursday ... the tail end of an incredible 293 million mile journey.

As we reported ... Perseverance blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral back in July and touched down at exactly 12:56 PM PT on Thursday. Pretty cool moment when the folks over at NASA's mission control celebrated the landing and fist-bumped from California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It's going to be fun seeing more images rolling in soon. As we told you ... the SUV-sized spacecraft also brought along a small helicopter along for the first time ever.

NASA's Mars rover landed safely on the Red Planet ... and its 293-million-mile journey is just beginning.

The Perseverance rover touched down at 12:56 PM PT Thursday, and quickly sent back the mission's first image from Mars' surface. As you can see, there's lots of dirt, dust and rocks.

NASA's mission control cheered and fist-bumped from California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the rover survived the landing ... a fun payoff after tons of hard work. Normally there would be bear hugs, but the celebration was spaced out and masked up.

Perseverance blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral way back in July, and now it's set to start exploring Mars' Jezero Crater in search of signs of ancient life. The crater is the site of an ancient lakebed, which scientists say is loaded with the remains of long-dead microbes.

The SUV-sized spacecraft even brought a small helicopter along for the first time ever, so more space history is on the way. When the chopper takes flight later on in the mission, it will be the first such flight on another planet.

Everything's rosy for Elon Musk's Starship spacecraft, except for those damn crash landings -- but somehow his engineers are keeping a remarkably positive outlook.

SpaceX's latest unmanned test flight of Starship -- designed to ferry cargo and people to the Moon and Mars -- ended Tuesday the same way it did in December ... with a fireball.

We'll say this ... the reusable capsule looked beautiful on the way up ... but it's that return flight that gets tricky. It's supposed to land vertically, but instead, it came down at an angle and burst into flames.

Bummer right? Not at mission control, where the mushroom cloud didn't stop an engineer from getting out his pom-poms to cheer up the team.

As the smoke was still rising, he bellowed, "Another great test flight" ... described everything that went right and then deadpanned, "We've just to work on that landing a little bit."

There's good reason for Captain Obvious to be so optimistic. Elon predicted Starship's initial test flights would likely crash land, and the primary objective is gathering data. See? Mission accomplished!!!

SpaceX is proving rocket launches never get old, because its latest mission had the precision of ... well, the Rockettes.

The spacecraft shook the ground Sunday at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The mission hurled a bunch of small satellites from both the government and private sectors. There was also SpaceX's Starlink broadband satellite.

The launch was originally set for last month, but was postponed for various reasons. It was scheduled to blast off Saturday, but Mother Nature had other ideas.

What's really amazing ... this is the 5th time the booster was used to rocket SpaceX payload into orbit. It made a perfect, bullseye landing. Really incredible.

A renowned Harvard physicist has a bold theory -- a celestial object that hurled through our solar system in 2017 was actually not of our galaxy ... but from another, perhaps light-years away.

Avi Loeb -- whose new book, "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth," delves more into his hypothesis -- came on "TMZ Live" Tuesday to explain why a massive, sleek unidentified piece of debris that crossed our path in 2017 might've been other-worldly.

Check it out ... Avi says when it was studied by physicists and other scientists at the time, it had none of the makings of a typical asteroid or meteor that we would see from a distant star in the Milky Way. On the contrary, he explains that it was actually propelled by an unknown source, and appears (to him, anyway) to have pierced through from a faraway place.

The Chairman of the Harvard Astronomy Dept. goes on to break down how he and his contemporaries think the object was catching flight ... it's a technology that's beyond our grasp at this point, but one that could describe how the 100-yard entity moved how it did. Think 'Star Wars' hyperspace ... and now, add light to the mix. That's pretty much what Avi believes happened here.

As for what exactly it could be ... Avi's said it might be nothing more than space junk. But, whose space junk is the key question. In his eyes, it ain't ours ... which is extraordinary.

If you saw an extra bright star in the sky Monday evening, you're not alone -- our Solar System's 2 biggest planets crossed paths ... closer than they've been since the year 1226!!!

Monday's winter solstice -- the longest night of the year -- happened to coincide with a rare celestial occurrence star-gazers call the Great Conjunction, when Jupiter and Saturn align in their respective orbits around the sun ... only this time, they got extra cozy in space.

While Jupiter will pass Saturn every 20 years, the last the gas planets appeared as together as they do this right now was some 800 years ago. That time, they nestled up too close to the sun, so hardly anybody could see. Now, they're crystal clear in the night sky.

It's a rare, cool thing ... one that's colloquially been called the "Christmas Star" -- y'know, from the Bible and all. The planets might look conjoined to the naked eye, but even then -- they're about one-tenth of a degree apart from our vantage point.

Up there, though, they're really hundreds of millions of miles apart. Still, there's no way you could've missed their closest point Monday if you looked to the southwest shortly after sunset ... assuming weather conditions allowed for a peek. Tons of folks snagged photos too.

Jupiter and Saturn will remain in close proximity for the remainder of the month, but after that, they'll drift back apart to their usual distance.

It sounds crazy and undoable, but there are plans to colonize the Moon, and frankly, it looks kinda awesome.

Here's the thing. NASA is promising 2 astronauts -- a man and a woman -- will hurl to the Moon by 2024. Part of the mission is to study colonization of the Moon, using lunar materials to build structures where astronauts could live and study the surface and atmosphere.

The cylinders in the photo would protect astronauts from radiation and below zero temps. They would be built with regolith, which is a fancy term for lunar dirt. Scientists believe the regolith could be used to create bricks, which harden under the heat of the Sun.

As for breathable air ... the crater where the colony would sit contains ice, which contains oxygen and hydrogen.

Scientists are calling the colony "Moon Village." NASA is thinking of using the Moon as home base to launch astronauts to Mars ... as early as the next decade.

None of this could be accomplished without power ... but solar panels reflecting the Sun's heat would do the trick.