Fact Check: 'Star Wars' artwork falsely shared as Earth's secret space programme
Social media users are sharing a photo of “Solar Warden”, allegedly a “secret space program”
By Newsmeter Network Published on 22 Jun 2021 11:54 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a photo of "Solar Warden", allegedly a "secret space program".
The caption of the posts read, "This is "SOLAR WARDEN"! This is the "Secret Space Program" that is being revealed to EARTH! They are not making a new space force, they are unveiling an existing branch of government/military! …. This will be unveiled to the people of the Earth as our first defense against a fake alien invasion."
Fact Check
The claim is false.
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found that the photo was first published in a book titled "The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" released by Abrams Publishing in 2016. The caption of the image read, "Imperial Base Planet-Star Destroyer Docking Base." It was credited to Ryan Church.
Church had also shared the image on his Twitter account in March 2021. The hashtags used indicate that the image is a 'Star Wars' concept art. ('Star Wars' is an American epic space opera media franchise)
Abrams Publishing released the book to coincide with the premiere of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. The book contains some explosive information about the first stand-alone 'Star Wars' film. Abrams gave Polygon a few exclusive images and one of them was the image of the 'Imperial Base Planet-Star Destroyer Docking Base' (viral image). The image was also shared on the art website Iamag.co under the title "40 exclusive concept art made for Rogue One, a Star Wars story".
https://www.polygon.com/2016/
This proves that the viral image is a 'Star Wars' concept art titled 'Imperial Base Planet-Star Destroyer Docking Base' that was published in a 2016 book by Abrams Publishing. Hence, the claim that it shows a secret space program is false.
