Space

One of the men who went to space aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin ship -- and was joined by William Shatner on the voyage -- has died in a plane crash.

Authorities say Glen de Vries died Thursday in a small plane crash. De Vries and Thomas P. Fischer were the only two involved and killed in the crash. The plane reportedly went down in Sussex County, New Jersey ... the FAA is still investigating what happened.

Blue Origin released a statement, saying, "We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries. He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired."

As we reported, Shatner was part of the second group of non-Astronauts to take flight on a Bezos-backed ship.

Captain Kirk and crew took off and landed in the Texas desert October 13. The voyage made Shatner the oldest person to go to space at 90.

Prior to their flight, Bezos, his brother Mark and two others had gone up in a Blue Origin test mission.

De Vries was just 49.

RIP

SpaceX can check one more accomplishment off its list -- successfully completing an ISS mission, now that its astronauts have touched down on Earth in grand fashion.

Elon Musk's Dragon capsule safely landed Monday evening, parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico without a hitch ... but not before it was seen streaking across the night sky, especially in New Orleans -- where it looked like a shooting star, or even an asteroid.

This might've freaked some folks out ... but rest assured, it was just the Endeavor crew torpedoing back into our atmosphere after being up in orbit for more than 6 months. Indeed, this was the crew SpaceX/NASA shot into space back in April ... 'memba that?!?

The astronauts who went up were Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet ... and they linked up with the International Space Station, where they've been doing research and fieldwork for this entire time.

Now that they're back, and the mission's apparently a success, Elon can proudly say he's helped get the U.S. back into space after a multi-year hiatus. The last time we were up there for an extended period of time was way back in the early 2010s, but that program was paused by NASA -- that is, until SpaceX jumpstarted things with this launch.

Pretty sweet feat ... and it definitely puts Elon higher on the billionaire's space race totem pole, alongside guys like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson -- who haven't gone quite as far up as SpaceX rockets/capsules have.

Oh, and BTW -- the team here had a little bathroom trouble on the way down ... NASA advised them not to use the onboard toilet -- due to malfunctions that made it inoperable -- so they had to improvise for their bodily functions. Yep, you guessed it ... diapers for everyone!!!

NBD, they handled the crappy situation with professionalism and humor.

SpaceX astronauts will be all wrapped up during their flight back from the International Space Station -- in diapers.

Those pesky toilet issues that plagued a previous flight back in September are back with a flourish.  Turns out the toilet is broken ... again. So, without a proper receptacle on the Dragon capsule, the crew will have to resort to cruder methods of release.

The NASA astronauts have been in the International Space Station and the plan is for them to return to earth Sunday. Astronaut, Megan McArthur, classically understated the problem by calling the situation "suboptimal."

The ride back to earth is 20 hours, so diapers are essential to avoid a disgusting mess.

George Takei thinks his good "Star Trek" buddy, William Shatner, is just an old-timer who played lab rat for Jeff Bezos' latest jaunt to space ... but Captain Kirk's not having it.

Bill fired back over a reported comment Takei made this week, following his costar's ascent above the Karman Line ... where he hung out in zero gravity for a few minutes before coming back down in Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket ship.

WS wrote Friday, "Don't hate George. The only time he gets press is when he talks bad about me. He claims 50+ years ago I took away a camera angle that denied him 30 more seconds of prime time TV. I'm giving it back to him now by letting him spew his hatred for the world to see! Bill the (pig emoji)."

ICYMI ... George had some harsh words about the voyage just a couple days prior, shortly after Will had touched down safely and shared some tears and words with Bezos.

GT said Bill was "boldly going where other people have gone before," while going on to call him a 90-year-old "guinea pig" who was going to help Bezos and co. find out "what happens" as it relates to how space travel affects a body with a lot of "wear and tear."

He also took a shot at Bill's weight, saying he wasn't really the healthiest "specimen" for the job ... going on to call him "unfit." You can probably tell ... these guys don't like each other.

There's a long-standing feud between them over their time on "Stark Trek" and subsequent films and spinoffs ... and it's going strong to this day.

Life has officially imitated art as William Shatner made history by becoming the oldest person ever to go to space.

Captain Kirk and crew hopped on Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule Wednesday morning and successfully blasted off into space ... never mind a couple of delays due to "vehicle readiness." Shatner himself said he got more nervous with each delay.

The 90-year-old and the other 3 crew members experienced 4 minutes of weightlessness before the capsule ultimately parachuted and landed safely in the west Texas desert at exactly 9:59 AM CT. Shatner gave a thumbs up before exiting the capsule.

Jeff Bezos opened the hatch, poked his head inside the capsule and greeted the newest astronauts. Shatner was second to exit and he said "Wow" before hugging Bezos.

Shatner started describing his experience to Bezos but he was briefly interrupted when Bezos popped open a bottle of champagne. Shatner turned down the bubbly. He later became visibly emotional and poetically described the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

He said, "What you have given me is the most profound experience I could imagine. I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope I maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. It’s so much larger than me, and life." Shatner also urged Bezos to make this experience widely available ... even if it means using 3D technology.

Shatner's crew included Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen and software mogul Glen de Vries.

We got our first look of Shatner in the space suit moments before liftoff ... and though the suit wasn't as silky smooth as what he wore on the Enterprise all those years ago, he still looked pretty damn good. He's seriously 90?!?!

Bezos drove the space travelers to the launch site in a Rivian electric pickup truck, Shatner was stuck with the middle seat, but didn't seem to care.

Shatner became the oldest person to ever go up into space ... beating out 82-year-old test pilot Wally Funk ... who joined Bezos, his brother, Mark, and recent HS grad Oliver Daemen, when they took Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule up for its premiere launch in July.

As you'll recall ... that initial crew went up to space for about 15 minutes, reached an altitude of 66.5 miles, floated around for a bit in zero-gravity while playing with ping-pong balls ... then came back down for safe landing.

Shatner's civilian flight will be very similar, but our sources say the mission will be also filmed for a documentary. Any moment now we'll have video of Shatner & co. inside the capsule.

Decades after he last played the role, William Shatner's going to become a real-life Captain Kirk ... because he's going to space ... on Jeff Bezos' rocket ship ... TMZ has learned.

Though he won't be boldly going where no man's gone before -- because Bezos and his Blue Origin crew already did it -- sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the 90-year-old actor is slated to be part of the second crew to take the space flight in the New Shepard capsule. That would make him the oldest person ever to be launched into space.

We're told Shatner will be on board in October for the 15-minute civilian flight -- similar to the last launch. What we don't know -- BUT WHAT WOULD BE AWESOME -- is if he wears his Capt. Kirk getup.

Our sources say the mission will be filmed for a documentary. We're told Shatner's people were talking to Discovery about the special, but that didn't materialize ... but our sources say Shatner and Co. have taken the project elsewhere and are in negotiations.

It's unclear who will be joining William on the flight, but they'll join elite company as some of the first few amateur astronauts in space. You'll recall, when Bezos went up, up and away in July ... he was joined by just his brother, Mark Bezos, test pilot Wally Funk and recent HS grad Oliver Daemen.

That crew reached an altitude of 66.5 miles, floated around for a few minutes in zero-gravity while playing with ping pong balls ... then made their way back down for safe landing.

Elon Musk's space company just made history ... the first ever, all-civilian spaceflight is way up above our planet ... and they blasted off without any astronauts.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman, a pilot himself, is leading the mission dubbed Inspiration4 ... and it looks like he's already having a blast up there in space with the rest of his lucky space tourists.

Chris Sembroski, Dr. Sian Proctor and Hayley Arceneaux took off with Jared in a SpaceX Dragon capsule Wednesday night ... blasting into space using a Falcon 9 rocket, which launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As you can see ... the space tourists were clapping and celebrating as they took off into space, breaking the speed of sound on the way up, while those in mission control back home were hyped too.

Now that they're in orbit, Jared and co. will be in space for the next 3 days, zipping around Earth about once every 90 minutes and enjoying the views.

As we first told you ... Jared told us back in February he was most looking forward to overriding the automatic pilot and taking Dragon for a spin up in space.

BTW ... the civilian crew will be sleeping in the same reclining seats you saw them in on the launch ... and they've got to share a toilet and forego showers.

NASA says it needs some guinea pigs to test out what life on Mars would be like for a year -- right here at home -- and they're asking for regular Earthlings to help out.

The space agency put out a want ad this week, asking for "healthy, motivated" U.S. citizens and/or permanent residents to sign up and volunteer for a year-long simulated experience ... which will apparently put 4 lucky participants together in a 3D printed bunker-like environment.

NASA has an idea of what the fake 1,700 square-foot Mars fort (of sorts) will look like ... something like what you see above.

Anyway, sounds like they're going to be doing a few of these "missions" -- with the first set to begin in Fall 2022 and take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where they'll recreate Mars conditions and put these folks through different tests ... for, like, research and whatnot.

Some of the things one might expect to be dealing with while there ... handling resource limitations, equipment failure and other environmental stressors. There's also the strong possibility NASA will make you go through simulated spacewalks, scientific research, use of virtual reality and robotic controls and "exchanging communications" ... as they put it. 👀

There might be some pay, it seems ... but the amount isn't specified in NASA's press release. But, still, it's kinda cool ... right??? BTW, we know we said ordinary people are wanted -- but that's isn't entirely true ... NASA is seeking the best and the brightest for these simulations.

There's a notable, near-ish-collision on Earth -- or at least one that's looming -- and the object that may be about to crash is traveling at 18,000 MPH!!!

NASA has sounded an alarm that a giant asteroid is about to pass Earth. It's somewhere between 318 and 720 feet in length ... about the size of the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The thing's even got a name -- 2008 G020.

Well, when we say near-collision, it's all relative. It's supposed to come as close as 2.8 million miles to our planet. In NASA-ese ... it's labeled an Apolo, which is a "near-Earth" designation.

To give you more context ... the Moon is 238,855 miles from Earth, while Mars is 236.5 million miles away. So, somewhere in the middle.

This won't be our closest encounter with G020. In 1901 it got 1 million miles from Earth.

Jeff Bezos is putting his money and his ass, quite literally, on the line for his Blue Origin aerospace company's first crewed mission into space at 6 AM PT ... and TMZ will be live streaming.

The richest man in the world and 3 others are hopping into the autonomous New Shepard capsule for the highly-anticipated journey into sub-orbital space. His fellow astronauts-to-be are Jeff's brother, Mark Bezos, test pilot Wally Funk and recent HS grad Oliver Daemen.

The entire thing -- from takeoff to landing -- is expected to last around 11 minutes. The capsule will take off from a remote area near Van Horn, Texas ... about 2 hours southeast of El Paso. It'll land in the Texas desert, after being slowed by parachutes.

When they reach the edge of space -- an altitude of around 65 miles -- Bezos & Co. will experience several minutes of weightlessness. For comparison ... Richard Branson's V.S.S. Unity only got up to about 53 miles. FYI, the FAA and Air Force recognize space at an altitude of 50 miles.

While Branson went up first -- winning the so-called billionaire space race -- Bezos' flight will make history in several other ways.

If successful, Jeff's space voyage will be the first to be unpiloted with a civilian crew. Wally and Oliver would also set records as the oldest and youngest to reach space at 82 and 18, respectively.

Wally, BTW, was one of the original Mercury 13 women who took part in training back in the 1960s to show women could meet NASA's standards to become astronauts.

The launch comes 9 days after Branson's successful launch and perfect landing in New Mexico.

Jeff Bezos says he wants his virgin trip to space to become something everyday people can do on the regs -- almost like catching an airline flight ... which his company is aiming to do through their shuttles.

The richest man on Earth made the morning media rounds Monday, including a chat with Michael Strahan of 'GMA' -- who went down the line, introducing the 3 others accompanying Bezos to space Tuesday and hyping their launch.

82-year-old astronaut Wally Funk said she felt like her life dream was coming full circle; 18-year-old Oliver Daemen said he hoped he could serve as an inspiration for the youth, and Mark Bezos said he was excited to go on yet another adventure with his sibling ... with this trip obviously being the ultimate.

Standard pre-maiden trip to space kinda stuff -- but Jeff also dropped some new insight into Blue Origins plans with their shuttles -- namely, that they're planning to turn the spacecrafts eco-friendly by making them reusable for repeated voyages going forward.

He compared it to commercial airliners that zip back and forth in the skies now -- explaining that he and BO hope to get to that type of efficiency in the near future. So ... that's neat.

The implication (we think) is that it hopefully won't cost folks an arm and a leg to get up there one day. No telling what type of eventual price tag Bezos has in mind -- but if they're serious about the rinse and repeat approach ... maybe there's a future Groupon coming???

Jeff Bezos lost the billionaire space race to Richard Branson, but his trip will still be historic ... because it's carrying both a teenager and an octogenarian into space.

As you've probably heard ... the Amazon honcho's rocket company, Blue Origin, is scheduled to launch into space aboard the New Shepard rocket July 20. When it does, its first paying customer -- 18-year-old Oliver Daemen -- will go down in the record books as the youngest space traveler ever.

Blue Origin announced the Dutch teenager would join Jeff and his brother, Mark Bezos, on the flight because the original $28 million winner of the company's auction for the spot chose a later mission "due to scheduling conflicts."

That person remains anonymous, but Oliver is the son of Somerset Capital Partners CEO Joes Daemen ... who paid for his kid to replace the original winner.

Meanwhile, the person who will pilot Blue Origin's rocket with the 3 men aboard is 82-year-old Wally Funk ... who will become the oldest human to go to space.

Funk was part of the Mercury 13, a group of 13 American women who in the early 1960s underwent similar studies as NASA’s Mercury 7 astronauts to determine if they could handle space travel ... but they never launched.

If all goes according to plan, Wally will finally get there, and when she does she will break the age record set by John Glenn, who returned to space in 1998 at the age of 77. Daemen will break the youth record set by the Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who was 25 when he blasted into orbit in 1961.

The FAA approved Blue Origin's launch Monday, just a day after Branson flew to space aboard the first passenger flight by his own space tourism company, Virgin Galactic.

Branson received a hero's welcome back on Earth Tuesday in NYC, as he was heading in to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Richard Branson is pulling out the big guns for his first trip to space ... as in Stephen Colbert, who's hosting the live stream of Virgin Galactic's first space flight with its boss onboard.

Branson's company is launching its SpaceShipTwo -- dubbed the V.S.S. Unity -- into sub-orbital space Sunday morning from Spaceport America, New Mexico ... and we'll be streaming it here. The launch is set for 7:30 AM PT.

If all goes as planned, the British tycoon will become the first billionaire in space ... just edging out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who's scheduled to make a similar flight on July 20, aboard his Blue Origin spacecraft.

The launch should be pretty spectacular. Unity will get a boost of sorts ... it will be attached to a specially designed airplane that takes off traditionally from a runway, and carries Unity about 9 miles up. At that point, Unity will separate from the plane and fire rocket engines to reach an altitude of 55 miles!

David Mackay and Michael Masucci will pilot Unity through the mission, while Branson and 3 other Virgin Galactic employees evaluate the weightless experience ... which is expected to last only about 5 minutes. After that, the ship returns to Earth, much like NASA's space shuttles -- gliding to a runway landing.

The whole mission's expected to take about 2 and a half hours.

Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 with the intent of leading so-called space tourism. The idea is to start taking paying passengers up to experience zero gravity while getting to see Earth from the edge of space.

In addition to Colbert hosting, Branson lined up Khalid to perform once the crew lands safely. Grab your coffee and a muffin ... the show launch should be pretty amazing.

Some high roller just dropped a fortune and a half to be one of two people who will fly up into space next month alongside the Bezos brothers ... all for a quick 11-minute trip!

Blue Origin auctioned off the third seat of the manned-voyage that's set to go down in late July -- the first of its kind for the company -- and they're saying the winning bid went to somebody who dropped ... wait for it ... a whopping $28 MILLION for the opportunity.

The sale closed Saturday, and it reportedly follows a month of bidding wars that didn't start getting into stupid rich territory until this past week ... when Jeff announced he'd be one of the four people going up there, with none other than his own brother, Mark, as person #2.

Whoever spent this absurd amount hasn't been revealed just yet -- but their identity is expected to surface closer to the launch date. The fourth passenger will also be revealed in the near future -- although it's unclear what the criteria is for whoever gets picked.

Remember, Jeff announced Monday that he himself would be going up for BO's maiden voyage with people inside ... putting his ass on the line, and kinda roping his bro in by extension.

We know we've said this before, but it's worth stating again ... what they're essentially doing is shooting themselves up in a rocket, which will then propel a separate capsule even higher up to the point that it breaks the stratosphere and technically reaches "space."

All in all, they'll be some 62 miles above ground -- and it'll take about 10 minutes or so to get there. Once they're above the Earth, they'll take a quick gander around, soak in the scene ... and then descend back down. Bottom line ... it's a sightseeing expedition.

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.

Ground control to Major Jeff ... you sure you really want to do this, sir???

Jeff Bezos says he's heading to space as part of the first crewed flight on a rocket ship made by his aerospace company, Blue Origin. The Amazon CEO will be joined on the crew by his younger brother, Mark, who he calls his best friend.

Bezos says he's dreamed of traveling to space ever since he was 5 years old, and he's going to turn that dream into reality on July 20 in a rocket ship called New Shepard.

The plan is for Jeff and Mark to join the auction winner for a seat on the 6-seat capsule and go on an 11-minute journey in the 59-foot rocket that will reach more than 60 miles above Earth.

As of now, the highest bid for a spot on New Shepard is approaching $3 million.

Bezos -- the world's richest person with a net worth of $187 billion -- will be the first among the billionaires with a space company to actually take a ride aboard the technology he's spent a fortune developing.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is doing some incredible things, but so far he's not announced any plans to travel to space himself. Richard Branson has said he will board Virgin Galactic's rocket-powered plane ... but that's not scheduled until later this year.

So, Jeff's going first, and it must be said -- this is an incredibly dangerous adventure and for someone with so much to lose, it'll be interesting to see how he prepares for it ... physically, mentally and, of course, financial planning.