NASA

Sir Richard Branson appears to still be on cloud nine -- or whatever number it is at 55 miles above sea level -- and now the trailblazing billionaire's autograph is an even hotter commodity.

The Virgin Galactic boss and newly minted astronaut was making his way to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Tuesday in NYC when he got a hero's welcome from a group of admirers ... most of them toting Sharpies and pics of Sir Richard.

He made his way over to greet his fans and sign some photos, telling them his recent voyage was "special" ... and he snapped lots of great photos.

Based on what we saw for ourselves Sunday -- when Branson and his fellow travelers launched into sub-orbital space aboard the VSS Unity -- we believe him, and we're pretty jealous.

Of course, Richard might be the first business magnate to fly commercial all the way to zero gravity ... but Jeff Bezos is right on his heels. He's set to take off July 20.

The Virgin founder didn't have anything to say about beating the Amazon founder in the billionaire space race, but he really didn't have to ... the look on his face says it all.

Branson's warm welcome in New York does pale in comparison to some other astronauts -- the ticker-tape parade for the crew of Apollo 11 back in 1969 was pretty epic.

Richard Branson is closing in on winning the billionaire space race with Jeff Bezos -- because Virgin Galactic now has a flight planned for next weekend, and the British billionaire will be onboard.

Richard's company announced plans Thursday to launch the rocket-fueled flight July 11 ... just 9 days before Bezos plans to travel to suborbital space July 20 with his Blue Origin mission.

Virgin Galactic says Branson will be joined by 2 pilots and 3 other astronauts on the spaceflight, with Richard "testing the private astronaut experience" ... a fancy phrase for the views from space, the cabin, seating and zero gravity.

Richard's company says the spaceflight on Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo rocket plane will stream live on social media, and the mission's been dubbed "Unity 22."

If all goes according to plan, Virgin Galactic and Richard will beat Blue Origin and Bezos by a healthy margin.

Remember, when Jeff announced his launch, back on June 7, Branson hadn't even publicly mentioned a date for his trip. That changed within a matter of days.

The Pentagon's UFO report didn't even scratch the surface ... at least according to a leading UFO filmmaker who has zero doubt Uncle Sam knows much, much more than it's letting on.

Jeremy Corbell, a UFO enthusiast and filmmaker, joined "TMZ Live" Tuesday, and said "bet your bottom dollar," the government knows more than what was in that 9-page report ... because, as Jeremy points out ... only 6 pages contained actual info!

While he's skeptical, Jeremy says he's actually still encouraged by the report because it means that, for the first time in American history, the U.S. government has officially and publicly acknowledged it's investigating mysterious UFOs.

He says it's about damn time, because this is a matter of national security. Senator Marco Rubio is among those who've echoed that concern.

Jeremy says the U.S. absolutely needs to know who or what is behind these UFOs because they're outperforming, outpacing and outmaneuvering our greatest fighter planes.

As we reported, the Pentagon's UFO report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, amounted to a nothing sandwich. The report noted 143 of the 144 flying objects it has spotted since 2004 are still a huge mystery and remain unexplained.

Richard Branson just cleared one huge hurdle in his quest to beat Jeff Bezos into sub-orbital space ... the FFA just gave Virgin Galactic the green light to fly passengers.

The Virgin Galactic honcho got the all-clear Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration reviewed extensive data gathered from his aerospace company's May 22 test flight. The review reportedly confirmed the flight performed well.

BTW ... it's the first time the FAA has licensed a spaceline to fly customers. Huge deal.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said, "We’re incredibly pleased with the results of our most recent test flight, which achieved our stated flight test objectives. The flight performed flawlessly, and the results demonstrate the safety and elegance of our flight system."

He added, "Today’s approval by the FAA of our full commercial launch license, in conjunction with the success of our May 22 test flight, give us confidence as we proceed toward our first fully crewed test flight this summer."

It should be noted, there were reports Branson was going to be traveling in one of his rocket-fueled flights over the July 4 weekend -- but the company has not announced any plans yet to do so -- aka, it almost certainly won't happen in that timeframe.

If it did takeoff ... that would edge out Bezos' Blue Origin flight by a couple of weeks.

Vladimir Putin and Russia are not responsible for the swarm of UFOs being reported by U.S. Navy pilots, according to Rep. Tim Burchett ... who says the aircraft must be from another galaxy!!!

We got the U.S. Congressman from Tennessee on Capitol Hill Tuesday and asked him about the rash of sightings in U.S. airspace or off our shores ... and the speculation President Biden plans to raise the issue Wednesday during his Geneva summit with Putin.

Rep. Burchett's having a hard time believing the Russians are involved. He says if they had the kind of advanced technology pilots have reported seeing ... Putin would already own America.

Instead, the Congressman thinks the objects -- which are seen on video operating in ways defying known laws of physics and gravity -- must be something from beyond the Milky Way.

There's lots of government chatter about UFOs these days, with intelligence officials expected to release an unclassified report for the first time before the end of June. Burchett says he's been disappointed with empty promises before about releasing UFO info ... and even calls out former Prez Trump for missing the mark.

The Congressman told us "something's clearly going on" ... but the powers that be think folks can't handle the truth. He also offered up a Biblical theory about the existence of UFOs.

If the highly-anticipated government report doesn't cough up some real intel, Burchett says it will only prove why some people believe more in UFOs than in their elected officials.

Richard Branson is out to prove he's the billionaire king of space travel, working with his team to beat Amazon's Jeff Bezos in busting out of Earth's atmosphere ... according to a new report.

Bezos announced he and his brother would be on the first crewed flight for his Blue Origin aerospace company -- the 11-minute trip is set to launch July 20. However, a report from the blog Parabolic Arc says Bezos' announcement has sparked a space race with Virgin Galactic honcho Richard Branson -- who now wants to launch his rocket-fueled flight over the July 4 weekend.

Branson's largest possible snag, according to Parabolic Arc, is that VG will first need to obtain a commercial reusable spacecraft operator’s license from the FAA.

Details of Branson's possible trip are sparse, but if approved -- he'll travel in Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo rocket plane for the journey. The billionaire has not yet spoken publicly about the trip.

One person who will certainly not find entertainment in the billionaire space race? Elizabeth Warren. We got the Senator in D.C. Thursday who said Bezos' planned trip to space is a slap in the face to taxpayers ... who she claims are basically funding the trip because Bezos doesn't pay his fair share in taxes.

The greatest show on Earth is in the sky above it in the form of the year's first solar eclipse -- and the "Ring of Fire" is pretty awesome to see.

The solar eclipse -- when the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth to create a so-called "Ring of Fire" effect -- started early Thursday morning. The best views are in Canada, from north of the Great Lakes to northeastern Canada, on up to the Arctic Ocean.

It later passed over the North Pole before ending in northeastern Siberia.

NASA said other countries in the Northern Hemisphere -- like the UK and Ireland -- were also able to see a partial eclipse, but only saw a fingernail-shaped shadow.

Some parts of the U.S. ... including northern Alaska, the southeast, Midwest and northeast caught a glimpse too. Although, most Americans didn't get the full "Ring of Fire" effect ... it still looked pretty badass.

For instance, one of the coolest shots of the eclipse came out of the NY area with the Statue of the Liberty in the foreground. Wow!

If you missed this eclipse, don't fret. There will be another one on November 19 -- a partial eclipse of the moon viewable in North America and Hawaii.

The former NASA astronaut commanding the first civilian crew to the International Space Station is feeling good about the so-called space tourists, because they're handling zero gravity better than him!!!

Michael Lopez-Alegria, the decorated astronaut with 2 NASA records for spacewalks, joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday to tell us how he and his 3 crew members handled their first weightless training flight.

It's pretty funny ... Michael says he was the one who felt the worst, while the philanthropists and entrepreneurs had a blast doing somersaults and backflips while they were experiencing zero gravity.

Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe are the 3 men who've dropped $55 million each to punch their tickets to the ISS and, so far, they're making their commander proud.

Axiom's Ax-1 mission -- the first private mission to the ISS -- blasts off in January with Michael at the controls. He admits he'll have a "tough needle to thread" during the 10-day mission with space newbies ... since he's their commander, but also ... kinda their tour guide in orbit.

It's a new challenge, for sure ... even for a guy who's logged more spacewalks than anyone else in history.

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.