Space

Arguably the biggest accomplishment in United States history is now the subject of a popular conspiracy ... with lotsa folks convinced NASA never really went to the moon.

TMZ Studios' new series, "Strange & Suspicious," examines weird and unexplained stories ... and here we're taking a look at the possibility the 1969 moon landing footage was shot in a movie studio as opposed to the actual lunar surface.

Conspiracy theorists love to point to the famous photo of Buzz Aldrin standing next to the U.S.A. flag after planting it on the moon ... the flag is crinkled and looks to be waving, and folks say there's just no wind in space.

Rob Kardashian broke his elusive tendencies and appeared on his family's show to discuss a matter close to his heart ... conspiracy theories about aliens.

Kris Jenner's only son made a rare appearance on Thursday's episode of "The Kardashians" ... as he joined taping for the show via a phone call to back up sister Khloe's stance on extraterrestrial beings.

Check it out ... the family got on the topic of aliens while discussing the viral Miami moment, where conspiracy theorists claimed aliens visited a mall in the Sunshine state.

NASA freaked people out after accidentally broadcasting a simulation of astronauts being in an emergency situation out in space -- but turns out ... it was just a false alarm.

The federal agency's YouTube channel went live this week with audio of a female guiding crew members on what to do in an emergency -- with lines like "get the commander back in his suit," "check his pulse, give him oxygen," etc.

Other remarks that were aired hinted at this would-be astronaut's health being tenuous -- specifically, going through decompression sickness on the International Space Station.

The third time was the charm for Boeing's long-delayed Starliner crewed mission ... which finally blasted off into orbit for its first piloted test flight to the International Space Station.

The United Launch Alliance's Atlas V powered up into the skies Wednesday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station -- with veteran U.S. astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and copilot Sunita "Suni" Williams on board ... streaming live on NASA's website.

Butch and Suni's cosmic commute will see them spend just over 24 hours traveling to the space station. After docking Thursday, they'll settle into their new home for the next 8 days ... joining the 7 astronauts and cosmonauts already on board the orbiting lab.

Boeing's recent string of incidents keeps growing ... 'cause the company was set to send astronauts into space -- before canceling the launch with just minutes to go.

The Boeing Starliner -- a spacecraft heading to the International Space Station -- aimed to launch at 12:25 PM ET Saturday, but with 3:50 left on the clock, they called off the whole mission ... and, the disappointing moment's caught on video.

Check out the clip ... everything's primed and ready to go when someone on comms mentions some issue flight control picked up on. There's some waiting around for a bit before the whole thing's called off.

UFOs are seemingly all around us these days ... and the latest sighting of one of these unidentified saucers occurred in Nevada on Friday.

Here's what happened ... a woman named Katrina and her buddies were hanging out in the city of Henderson around 10 PM when they suddenly saw a bright round light shimmering high up in the sky.

Check out the video, obtained by TMZ ... the glistening object started flying in a diagonal pattern before moving up and down. At some point, you can see a plane streaking by, but it never gets too close to the alleged UFO.

UFO sightings apparently have nothing to do with anything extraterrestrial -- at least that's what Uncle Sam is saying, anyway, after digging into the issue.

For the past couple years, the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has been digging into all those UFO videos in recent years ...  and on Friday, they came out and said it was all much ado about nothing ... at least as far as aliens are concerned.

The Pentagon says they've found zero evidence that any of those mysterious UAP sightings were from outer space ... and also no proof of hidden spacecraft dropping by either.

The unclassified 63-page report goes on to state there's no evidence of the government or any sneaky private companies having their hands on extraterrestrial tech to reverse engineer UFOs in secret ... something that's been alleged by supposed whistleblowers.

In fact, Tim Phillips, the acting director of AARO, told reporters there's no indication that anyone's been hiding stuff from Congress at all on this issue ... adding that the alleged secret UAP programs being kept under wraps by the U.S. government don't exist at all.

Worth noting ... Congress ordered up this report 'cause there's been a lot of renewed interest about UFOs -- so the whole thing may just be a tactic to divert attention elsewhere or cover it up altogether ... that's certainly what conspiracy theorists are gonna say about this.

Navy fighter pilot commander David Fravor, a witness of the infamous "Tic Tac" UFO sighting, and former pilot Ryan Graves, also testified alongside David Grusch under oath about UFOs and secret government programs allegedly involving extraterrestrial tech.

A lot of their testimonials were covered in our own doc about this ... 'UFO Revolution.'

Their stories were pretty alarming, and some of those stories about UFO sightings are seriously convincing ... especially with some of the videos that have been released.

As far as the Pentagon is concerned, though ... no little green men are among us.

Japan just became the latest country to set up camp on the moon -- although, how hard it actually touched down is still a little unclear.

Yes, it's a big deal ... Japan is now the fifth country to get some kind of spacecraft up on the big ball of cheese in the sky -- landing their "Moon Sniper" explorer Friday ... part of which they streamed live to document the momentous occasion.

The question at this point, however, is whether the explorer crashed onto the moon ... or if it successfully made contact. There are conflicting reports on what the actual case is.

We suppose we'll know soon enough -- but in any case, it's cool to see the human race continue to try and explore our moon. This mission is called SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) and this launch of Japan's robot went down way back in September.

The other countries that have been to the moon ... Russia, China, India and, of course, the US of A. We're the only ones to get humans up there ... no one's been back since.

Japón se acaba de convertir en el último país en aterrizar en la Luna, aunque todavía no está muy claro hasta qué punto ha llegado.

Es un gran acontecimiento... Japón ahora es el quinto país en conseguir que una nave espacial llegue hasta el cuerpo celeste, con el aterrizaje de su "Moon Sniper" el viernes y parte del evento se transmitió en vivo para documentar la ocasión trascendental.

La cuestión en este momento, sin embargo, es si el explorador se estrelló en la luna o si hizo contacto con éxito. Hay informes contradictorios sobre la realidad actual.

Suponemos que pronto lo sabremos, pero en cualquier caso, alucina ver que la raza humana sigue intentando explorar nuestra Luna. Esta misión se llama SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) y el lanzamiento del robot japonés tuvo lugar en septiembre.

Los otros países que han estado en la luna antes son Rusia, China, India y, por supuesto, los Estados Unidos. Somos los únicos que hemos logrado llevar seres humanos hasta allí, nadie ha regresado desde entonces.

Jeff Bezos dice que la calidad de vida para la humanidad es mejor ahora que nunca, pero no puede decir lo mismo del mundo natural y cree que el espacio es la respuesta.

El multimillonario dice que la idea de "todo tiempo pasado fue mejor" es 0una ilusión, porque básicamente todas las métricas indican que la calidad de vida es mejor ahora de lo que era en el pasado.

Sin embargo, mientras Jeff dice que la humanidad avanza, ve que la naturaleza retrocede. Dice que el mundo natural era "prístino" hace 500 años, pero desde la Revolución Industrial los humanos han dañado la naturaleza para mejorar nuestras propias vidas.

Jeff tiene una solución para devolver la naturaleza a donde estaba, mientras que también continúa moviendo a la humanidad a un lugar mejor. Compartió estas ideas en el podcast de Lex Fridman.

La solución... el espacio exterior.

Jeff dice que en algún momento la humanidad tendrá que vivir afuera, porque la Tierra tiene recursos finitos y necesitamos más y más energía para seguir mejorando nuestra calidad de vida.

Por supuesto, la compañía aeroespacial Blue Origin de Jeff se dedica a esta misma idea.

Jeff Bezos says the quality of life is better now than it has ever been for humanity, but he can't say the same about the natural world ... and he thinks space is the best alternative.

The billionaire owner of Blue Origin Aerospace Co. says the notion of "the good ole days" is mostly an illusion, because basically every metric for measuring the quality of life is higher now than it was in the past.

But, while Jeff says humanity is moving forward, he sees nature moving backward. He says the natural world was "pristine" 500 years ago, but since the Industrial Revolution humans have damaged nature to improve our own lives.

Jeff's solution for bringing nature back to where it was before, while also continuing to move humanity into a better place ... is outer space, and he shared his vision on the Lex Fridman podcast.

He says, at some point, humanity will have to live off the moon and beyond ... because Earth has finite resources and we need more and more energy to keep improving our quality of life.

Of course, Jeff's Blue Origin aerospace company is dedicated to this very idea, and it's interesting to hear him explain why he's banking on it.

A bunch of Texans could've sworn they saw something extraterrestrial in the sky last night -- but fortunately, it was just an out-of-this-world personality from this planet ... Elon Musk.

Several sightings got reported online Friday evening -- with a purported UFO being spotted flying over multiple different cities all throughout the the Lone Star State. In all the clips -- some of which have been obtained by TMZ -- everyone's seeing the same thing.

Take a look ... all these folks see a bright light up in the heavens, which looks to be cruising along -- only to spit out a giant plume of smoke, which expands into an ever-growing ring.

The reactions in about all the videos are pretty much the same ... THE HECK IS THAT???

In the 1st clip above, people are watching a local football game when they spot the celestial phenomenon -- captured right in Dallas. The second clip was filmed in nearby Greenville, TX ... and a third clip was shot quite a ways away in Georgetown, TX, closer to Austin.

Like we said, all of these folks seem to have thought they witnessed a classic flying saucer -- but as it turns out ... it was just a Starlink satellite launch courtesy of EM's SpaceX company.

The subsidiary announced they'd be launching a new fleet from a station of theirs in Florida -- and noted it'd be in "low-Earth orbit." The giant halo effect is called a "space jellyfish" ... something that happens when a rocket's propulsion emission hits sunlight at a certain angle.

Ring, the company known for its doorbell and home security cameras, wants to see proof of alien life ... and is offering up a hefty cash prize for anyone who can capture footage.

The company launched its "Million Dollar Search for Extraterrestrials" this week, offering up a $1M grand prize for anyone who has "unaltered proof of Extraterrestrial life" -- specifically documented on one of its Ring cameras.

Ring says the footage can be of an unearthly being walking around your backyard, or even a UFO pullin' up to your driveway ... but all submitted materials will be looked at by an expert for approval.

Skeptics might see this as an easy challenge from Ring -- putting up big bucks for something that may not be legit ... but for those that buy the strange phenomenon, here's your shot.

In case ya forgot, we spoke with Neil deGrasse Tyson in August about the potential of alien life visiting our planet -- especially as the topic's being taken more seriously in the U.S.

According to Neil, the high-tech world we live in is a reason why he's not so sure UFOs are here ... mostly because the only alleged footage we've seen is grainy as hell! But, Ring's big challenge might put Neil's concerns to rest.

Ring, la compañía conocida por sus cámaras de seguridad para el hogar, quiere ver pruebas de vida extraterrestre y para ello está ofreciendo un premio en efectivo bastante considerable para quien pueda capturar esas imágenes.

La compañía lanzó la campaña "Million Dollar Search for Extraterrestrials" esta semana, en donde ofrece un premio de 1 millón de dólares para quien tenga una "prueba inalterada de vida extraterrestre", y tiene que estar documentada específicamente en una de sus cámaras.

Ring dice que las imágenes pueden ser de un ser sobrenatural caminando en tu patio trasero, o incluso de un OVNI acercándose hasta la entrada de tu casa, pero todos los materiales serán examinados por un experto para su aprobación.

Los escépticos podrían ver esto como un reto fácil para Ring, esto es, poner mucho dinero en algo que puede que no sea legítimo, pero para aquellos que compran estos extraños fenómenos, esta puede ser su oportunidad.

En caso de que lo hayan olvidado, hablamos con Neil deGrasse Tyson en agosto sobre la posibilidad de que los extraterrestres visiten nuestro planeta, sobre todo considerando que el tema se está tomando más en serio en Estados Unidos.

Según Neil, el mundo de alta tecnología en el que vivimos es una de las razones por las que no está tan seguro de que los ovnis estén aquí, ¡sobre todo porque las únicas supuestas imágenes que hemos visto son muy granuladas!

Pero el gran reto de Ring podría acabar con las preocupaciones de Neil.

Paul Pierce is opening up on the most terrifying experience of his life ... revealing his near-fatal stabbing in 2000 shaped him into the man he is today.

The Celtics legend reflected on his past in an emotional conversation on Monday night's episode of Fox's celebrity competition show, "Stars On Mars" ... explaining the Boston nightclub incident -- in which he was stabbed 11 times -- completely changed his point of view.

"I've showed endurance in my life because I never gave up," Pierce said in the clip. "I kept going and going."

The Truth added he was at the "lowest point in my life" when he got in the altercation ... saying, "I was like 23 years old, living my dream, and then all of a sudden I'm fighting death."

But, instead of letting the stabbing derail his journey, Pierce said it made him want to work even harder.

"Not only was it a low point, it was a high point for me, too. It changed my thinking, it changed my mindset, it changed how I lived."

Pierce compared the stabbing to his experience on the show ... as he spent the first few days struggling to gain any ground, but persisted and made it to the very end.

"It's kinda been my life, starting at the bottom and rising up."

Pierce went on to play every game of the 2000-01 season ... eventually bringing a championship to the Celtics in 2008.

India's boldly gone where no other country has -- landing a spacecraft, the Chandrayaan-3, on the moon's south pole, and becoming only the 4th nation to achieve lunar success.

The Indian Space Research Organisation's mission control erupted in cheers as the unmanned Chyandrayaan-3 softly touched down on the moon's south pole Wednesday morning ... marking a successful end to a more than month-long mission.

India's now earned its Moon Card, along with the U.S., Russia and China -- although, only America's landed manned missions there.

One thing the ISRO has on just about every other lunar mission is cost, 'cause they really did it on the cheap. India's budget for the entire mission is a paltry $75 million ... an amount that pales in comparison to the budgets of several Hollywood movies about space exploration!!!

The Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon's south pole is a big deal because traces of ice were recently discovered there ... so the ISRO is hoping to explore the area for water that could be used to fuel future spacecraft.