Jeff Bezos experienced a major setback with his Blue Origin rocket, which exploded in a fireball during a ground test in Florida.
Here's our video of the explosion at Launch Complex 36. It happened about 9 pm ET (0100 UTC) as Blue Origin was beginning a static fire test of its New Glenn rocket.
The dramatic scene was captured on video Thursday night as the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket was trying to lift off from a launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin said it was all part of an engine test being conducted for a satellite launch next week.
As you can see ... the rocket turns into a massive ball of fire with smoke billowing up to the sky. Thankfully, no one was injured.
Talk about a "holy s***" moment for Elon Musk ... his SpaceX rocket exploded in a massive fireball -- and the thing is, it was all planned out that way!
Here's the lowdown ... Musk launched his largest and most powerful rocket in history, called Starship V3, from Starbase, Texas, Friday night. The rocket was supposed to lift off Thursday, but the launch was scrapped due to technical issues -- remember, Nicki Minaj made a cameo that day at the base minutes before the launch was called off.
On Friday, SpaceX tried the test flight again, and this time it was a success ... with the journey lasting over an hour before the rocket splashed down in the Indian Ocean and detonated like a 12,000-pound bomb.
Nicki Minaj made a surprise cameo appearance Thursday at Elon Musk's Starbase site in Texas, where SpaceX tried to launch its new megarocket into outer space -- but it all fell apart due to technical issues.
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Still, Nicki had a blast attending her first attempted rocket launch, hanging out with some of the SpaceX staff -- and even getting interviewed on camera.
Check out the clip ... Nicki called the moment "historic," pointing to her T-shirt emblazoned with the rocket's name, "Starship," which is almost identical to the name of one of her most famous songs, "Starships."
Jeremy Corbell is encouraged and optimistic about the first batch of alien and UFO files being released by the government ... he says the transparency here is a long time coming.
The UFO expert and filmmaker joined us Friday on "TMZ Live," and we asked him about the Pentagon releasing photos, videos and files on aliens and unidentified aerial phenomena.
Jeremy tells us the White House has told him more files will be released as part of a "slow burn" ... and he hopes that means they are easing people into the information. On the other hand, he says a slow rollout could mean President Trump didn't get the good stuff.
The Artemis II crew's grateful to be back on earth ... especially the mission's commander, Reid Wiseman, who was overcome with emotion while speaking Saturday.
The crew just did a debrief in Houston, TX after landing near San Diego Friday ... and the commander delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd that really peeled back the curtain on space travel.
Wiseman says the team couldn't wait to go up before takeoff ... but, as soon as they got into the vacuum of space, they only thought about getting home to their families.
5:10 PM PT -- It was a picture perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean ... right on time at 5:07 PM PT. The capsule floated down to the water under 3 deployed parachutes, just minutes after it was speeding through the air at more than 23,000 MPH!
Naval boats are speeding toward the capsule to recover the Artemis crew.
Artemis II is wrapping up its historic mission after nine and a half days ... and it’s all coming back down to Earth in a big way, which you can watch on the livestream here.
Astronauts -- Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Commander Reid Wiseman -- are set to make a Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego at around 8:07 PM EDT.
NASA says a U.S. Navy helicopter will track the Orion capsule as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, with boats set to recover the crew once they’re down.
Anthony Anderson is sounding off on the Artemis II flight ... and yeah ... he’s not exactly over the moon about it!
We caught him at LAX Tuesday, and he kept it real ... saying it makes zero sense to spend all that cash sending four people around the moon when there's a laundry list of problems right here on Earth that need funding.
Check the clip -- Anthony’s fired up, rattling off everything from homelessness to underfunded programs, basically asking why space is getting the spotlight while real-life issues still struggle to get met.
Sad news for the UFO community ... Nick Pope -- known as the real-life version of "The X-Files" character Fox Mulder -- has died after battling cancer.
His wife, Elizabeth Weiss, confirmed her husband had passed in their Tucson, AZ home on Monday, posting on X ... "My heart is breaking."
She mentioned Nick had still been doing interviews in the final weeks of his life "even as he suffered," and reflected that she was "so lucky" to have been married to him, adding ... "He was a wonderful husband. I loved him dearly."
President Donald Trump’s call with the Artemis II crew Monday night had a seriously awkward moment … when the crew seemingly decided they were done talking to him -- and the prez blamed it on a glitch!
Just check out the stream between Trump and the 4 astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft -- NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Trump is gushing about their bravery and even tells them his good pal Wayne Gretzky is in awe of them. The crew gives the speech some smiles and a thumbs up ... and then go silent.
The stream sits quiet for about a minute ... but they do eventually reconnect with Trump, who notes he thinks they may have "gotten cut off." After Trump informs the crew of his words they may have missed ... Reid says they totally heard him, and are also proud of their fellow Canadians.
NASA’s Artemis II is about to reach a huge milestone -- the crew’s closest pass to the moon -- and you can watch it all go down live here.
Four astronauts -- Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Commander Reid Wiseman -- are making history, heading to the moon for the first lunar mission in more than 50 years ... and this flyby is the closest they’ll get.
It’s a major flex for space travel too -- they’re going farther than any humans ever have, beating the record set by Apollo 12. Their Orion spacecraft is now deep in the moon’s orbit following Wednesday's lift-off, officially feeling more pull from the moon than the Earth.
Rep. Tim Burchett says a member of our government has told him extraterrestrial beings have visited our planet, traveling on an otherworldly craft ... and made contact with humans!!!
The Congressman from Tennessee joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday and we asked him about aliens ... and he didn't hold back.
Rep. Burchett says he's had multiple government and military officials tell him extraterrestrials exist ... it sounds out there, but he insists it's true.
NASA doesn't have the whole world on a string ... but they've got it all in a pic, which the astronauts on Artemis II snapped.
The new pics capture our home in all its blue and brown glory from the window of the space capsule ... with the sun's glow hitting the side of the planet.
NASA says the snaps capture everyone on the planet looking back up at the Artemis II astronauts and cheering the mission on ... despite the s****y start it got off to.
Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch has a new name to add to her resume -- "space plumber" -- now that she successfully fixed the toilet issue on the NASA rocket en route to the moon.
Koch gave viewers the rundown after the Orion spacecraft's porcelain throne -- called the Universal Waste Management System -- stopped working just hours after launch on Thursday. Luckily, Koch noted it was a minor issue that had to do with the toilet sitting for too long. It just needed to warm up before the crew could warm its seat!
We told you all about the bathroom turbulence -- the potty troublesforced the astronauts to hold number 1 or use a backup system until the issue was fixed, which took several hours to do.
Drop everything you're doing, this is the best thing you'll see all day! A TikTok user shared the most amazing point of view of the Artemis II launch from her Delta flight ... and you're gonna wanna check it out.
It's so cool ... from a mile high in the air, you can see the Orion spacecraft rocketing out of Earth's atmosphere on the way to the freaking moon.
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The flyby mission to circle the moon and come back is maybe the most ambitious of the past 5 decades, and it's already hit its first minor hiccup.
Forget peanuts and Cracker Jack … this ballgame came with a rocket launch that completely stole the show.
Fans packed into an in-state softball game between Florida and Stetson on Wednesday evening suddenly ditched the diamond and looked skyward … as Artemis II blasted off from Kennedy Space Center, just about an hour away.
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The game actually paused as thousands of spectators pulled out their phones, capturing the surreal moment a rocket carrying four astronauts lit up the night sky on its 10-day trip around the moon.
The astronauts on the Artemis II mission experienced some potty troubles just hours after takeoff Wednesday ... forcing them to hold number 1 or use a backup system until the issue was fixed.
Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch -- the only woman onboard the 10-day mission -- first reported the issue to mission control when she noticed a blinking fault light, per Space.com. Norm Knight, NASA's director of flight operations, told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center the malfunction was due to a controller issue on the toilet.
