Fact Check: Did NASA astronaut drop the ball and expose NASA’s ‘fake International Space Station’?
The viral video is clipped and is being shared with misleading context.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 3 Oct 2023 6:10 PM IST
Screengrab from the Facebook post.
Hyderabad: A video of NASA astronauts talking inside a space station, while one of them accidentally drops a blue-coloured ball-like object (a globe), has gone viral on social media. The Facebook video has a text questioning how an object can fall vertically downwards inside a space station which has zero gravity, being so far away from the Earth.
(Image Credit: Facebook)
Hence, using this video, many social media users claim that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has faked the entire story of an International Space Station revolving around the Earth in space.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that viral video is clipped and is being shared with misleading context.
Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we came across an over 24-minute video published by NASA’s YouTube channel on April 22, 2021, titled “Earth Day Q&A with Astronauts in Space | Hosted by Shawn Mendes.”
The video’s description read, “On April 22 at 11 a.m. EDT, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mark Vandehei, and Soichi Noguchi of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will go LIVE from space for a special Earth-focused Q&A with guest host Shawn Mendes!”
At the 18:30-minute timestamp, the viral clip appears. The astronaut standing on the far right can be seen with a small globe, which he accidentally releases from his grip. The globe, at the 18:53 minute timestamp, is visible again floating in front of them, which confirms that it did not fall in free fall.
Hence, the original video confirms that the video is from a space station.
(Image Credit: NASA)
Further, we came across a report by AFP on the viral video from April 26, 2023. Alice Gorman, an associate professor from Flinders University, explained to AFP that if the video was fake then every object in the video would be subject to the laws of gravity, not just the globe. The globe moved downwards simply because it was released downward by Hopkins (astronaut) when he released his grip on it.
“The ball acquired energy from the movement of Hopkins so it has an initial direction. But as that force dissipates, we see the ball floating randomly back towards the crew,” she said.
The report also quoted a NASA spokesperson as saying that a “small amount of force was applied onto the globe” by Hopkins. A Reuters report also confirmed that the video has been edited to show as if the ball falls due to gravity.
Hence, we conclude that the viral video from NASA’s space station has been clipped and is being shared with misleading context.
