Astronauts

Does a reflection in an astronaut's helmet visor from the Apollo 17 moon landing prove that it was a hoax? No, that's not true: The reflection seen in astronaut Gene Cernan's helmet visor shows astronaut Harrison Schmidt standing in front of him on the surface of the moon in 1972. "The view is a little distorted due to the curvature…

Has NASA "all but admitted the [moon] landings were fake" in the past 12 months, but mainstream media is not reporting on the revelations so the public doesn't know? No, that's not true: The Apollo missions that orbited and landed on the moon really happened. There has been no new information, no "admission" from NASA that would undermine the historical…

Did NASA hand over control of the International Space Station (ISS) to Russia after a Russian official threatened to crash it into Earth? No, that's not true: A NASA spokesperson told Lead Stories that a long-established ceremonial change of command "does not represent overall control of ISS. That remains unchanged with the crew." There was no threat to "crash it…

Did then-President Richard Nixon fake a phone call to the moon when astronauts first landed in 1969? No, that's not true: According to AT&T, the call went from Washington, D.C., to Houston to the moon using a capsule communicator. The call was made using "telephone-radio transmission," the National Archives wrote. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on June 18,…

Did Buzz Aldrin reveal that the Apollo 11 mission was faked when he corrected Conan O'Brien's recollection of having watched the moon landing live on TV as a child by telling him that what he watched was an animation? No, that's not true: Buzz Aldrin made a technical distinction to clarify that the live TV broadcasts showed an animation of…

Is a post listing more than a dozen duties, selection requirements and obligations for honor guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery entirely accurate? No, that's not true: While some of the claims in this post, which has circulated online since at least 2004, describe authentic practices of the honor guard, others are either false,…

Does the mismatch between lunar boot prints and the smooth sole of Neil Armstrong's "space boot" confirm that U.S. astronauts never walked on the moon? No, that's not true: This recirculated hoax is missing context, as Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew wore inner pressure space boots with a smooth tread inside "overshoes" that left the rough textured boot…

Does the International Space Station (ISS) have a "floppy door" going from the inside of the station to outer space? No, that's not true: according to a spokesperson from NASA, the "door" this video focuses on is the thermal cover for the hatch door of the spacecraft. The thermal cover helps to regulate the temperature of the astronauts from the…

Is the atmosphere on Mars too thin for the Ingenuity helicopter to fly and does it lack enough oxygen for combustion to brake any ship on landing? No, that's not true: Mars' atmospheric volume is less than 1% of that on Earth and the Red Planet has less than the 16% oxygen found on Earth, but scientists have found ways…

Does this collection of comments date back to 1955 or 1957? No, that's not true: These 20 quips do harken to an earlier time but they do not trace all the way back to the 1950s. This contrived collection of comments seems to have been a popular email to forward as early as 2001. It has since been repurposed in…