Astronauts

Did former astronaut Buzz Aldrin post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the Apollo 11 mission, which allowed American astronauts to set foot on the moon for the first time, was "staged"? No, that's not true: Aldrin's official X account does not indicate that he ever made such a statement. Claims that Aldrin, who participated in the Apollo 11…

Did a U.S. Marine Officer spend over 15 years on Mars in a secret space program? No, that's not true: A NASA spokesperson told Lead Stories that NASA has "not yet sent humans to Mars" and has a goal of "having astronauts walk on Mars by 2040." A Pentagon duty officer confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is "100%…

Is the moon a machine that is filled with computers? No, that's not true: The moon is a rock with a metallic core, according to NASA, the agency that has studied the moon and outer space for decades. The United States has landed men on the moon, and there have been multiple countries around the world that have sent spacecraft…

Does a meme on social media prove that footage of astronauts jumping on the surface of the moon must be fake because they come back down to approximately the same place? Wouldn't an astronaut who jumped up for one second come down many feet away from where he took off because the moon is rotating and has no atmosphere? No,…

Are solar flares not real, thus incapable of disrupting telecommunications networks, as a post on Instagram suggests? No, that's not true: Solar flares are well-documented bursts of electromagnetic energy emitted by the sun during geomagnetic storms, and a large body of evidence proves they exist and have far-ranging effects. Flares disrupt radar, gps and other radiowave-based systems, according to recognized…

Is it true that the Lunar Roving Vehicle could not have fit inside the Lunar Module on the Apollo 15 mission, meaning moon missions after that were faked, as a post on Instagram suggested? No, that's not true: The Apollo 15 mission was a 1971 space program that genuinely landed the Lunar Module on the moon with the Lunar Roving…

Was the Gemini 9 spacewalk in 1966 faked, as a 2024 post on social media implies with a video clip? No, that's not true: Video footage included in the post is from a 1966 televised re-enactment of what was happening in space on June 5 of that year. CBS News Correspondent Walter Cronkite said multiple times during the live broadcast…

Did NASA's Hubble Telescope take the Weekly World News' "Photo of Heaven" as part of hundreds of photos beamed back from space to the Goddard Space Flight Center in December 1993? No, that's not true: NASA told Lead Stories that it is "not a real Hubble image," but artwork. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, has provided stunning images…

Is the International Space Station (ISS) in a swimming pool? No, that's not true: The ISS is in space, orbiting Earth, contrary to images on social media referring to the ISS as "International Swimming Station". The images show NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory with a full-size mock-up of the space station. It includes a large pool with technology used for training…

Does this video show a real asteroid crashing into the moon, prompting an explosion following the collision? No, that's not true: Lead Stories determined through a reverse image search that the footage in question was first posted by a YouTube creator in February 2023 and was later shared by an account on Instagram that confirmed the clip was created using…