Space

Astronaut Nicole Stott says folks who are cynical over seeing a billionaire complete the first-ever civilian spacewalk need to cool their jets ... because it's actually to everyone's benefit.

Nicole, who did her own spacewalk in 2009 at the International Space Station, tells TMZ ... billionaire Jared Isaacman bankrolling a historic spacewalk is good for humankind in the long run, and it will help us eventually reach Mars.

The way Nicole sees it ... private space exploration is vital toward our goals of going further into space than ever before, and while the average person can't pay for a trip into orbit right now, it likely will be affordable in the future.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman is feeling outta this world after successfully completing the first-ever civilian spacewalk -- and he spent a pretty penny to get in the history books.

The billionaire CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company, took a ride on SpaceX for its riskiest mission to date ... in which he and another astronaut left the capsule and floated in space in newly designed spacesuits.

The Polaris Dawn mission was bankrolled by Isaacman. He and retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott Poteet, SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon orbited 435 miles above Earth.

The troubled Boeing Starliner capsule successfully cruised back down to Earth from the International Space Station Friday evening — but no one was onboard.

As we previously reported ... Butch Wilmore and fellow astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams have been stranded on the International Space Station since June 6, due to Starliner's thruster troubles and helium leaks ... after what was supposed to be a week-long stay. They are now stuck on the station for as many as six more months!

The capsule undocked yesterday at 6:04 PT ET ... then spent six hours flying back to Earth, where it successfully touched down at New Mexico’s White Sands Space Harbor at 12:01 AM ET, per NASA.

9:02 AM PT -- NASA released a statement on its findings regarding the strange sound heard by astronaut Butch Willmore, stating, "A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped. The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner."

The statement continued, "The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback. The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system. The speaker feedback Wilmore reported has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner’s uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept. 6."

As if being stranded in space for the foreseeable future wasn't enough ... one of the astronauts stuck aboard the ISS just sent NASA audio of an ominous noise coming from their faulty Boeing Starliner aircraft.

In audio first reported by Ars Technica, astronaut Butch Wilmore can be heard communicating with Johnson Space Center in Houston ... telling mission control, "I've got a question about Starliner. There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it."

Mission control configured a way for Butch to play the sound through the phone ... and after one failed attempt at hearing it, mission control confirmed, "Butch, that one came through. It was kind of like a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping."

LeVar Burton is defending space exploration, Angelina Jolie is not dating anyone, and Kyren Williams is previewing the upcoming NFL season ... all this on today's TMZ TV Hot Takes.

First up on "TMZ Live," Harvey and Babcock break down LeVar's position on space ... now that we're dealing with an astronaut emergency up there.

The mother of Sunita Williams, one of the astronauts stuck in space until 2025, has a surprisingly chill outlook on her daughter's predicament.

We caught up with Bonnie Pandya on "TMZ Live" Monday, where the astronaut's mom explained the situation -- which has left her daughter stranded on the International Space Station. Mom says it's just another day at work for the seasoned astronaut.

As Bonnie put it ... she's doing just fine in the face of this harrowing update, since her daughter has been training for situations like this throughout her 20-year career.

The Boeing Starliner astronauts stranded in space for nearly three months are going to have to be there a little longer ... 'cause they're not going to be earthbound until next year.

During a newsconference Saturday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson explained Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are expected to return in February 2025 ... while the Boeing Starliner will be returned unmanned out of concern for their safety.

That's six more months for the pair in space ... a far cry from the nine days their mission was originally scheduled for.

Two astronauts currently stuck in space are facing a potential wardrobe malfunction -- their spacesuits won't fit on a potential rescue craft.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are still orbiting Earth 'cause of problems on the Boeing spacecraft they went up in ... and they may need a rescue mission from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring them back down to Earth.

The problem is, the pair's spacesuits were made for the interior of the Boeing Starliner -- and literally won't plug into systems on the SpaceX Dragon due to different porting designs.

Two astronauts stranded in space for more than 60 days may have to keep orbiting the Earth until early 2025 ... because their Boeing spacecraft appears unable to bring them home.

NASA is now saying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may need to be rescued from the International Space Station by a spacecraft from a rival company ... Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The pair took a Boeing Starline spacecraft to the ISS in June but the maiden voyage has been a disaster ... with helium leaks and thruster failures preventing them from taking the spaceship home.

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.