Is NASA keeping vintage cars in a parking lot to prepare for an electromagnetic pulse "blast"? No, that's not true: The vehicles shown in a questioning video on social media were part of a movie titled "Fly Me To The Moon" which was filmed at a NASA facility. There were several images taken of the location during production of the film, which is expected to be released in July 2024.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on January 18, 2024. The superimposed text on the video said "Is NASA hiding something from us?" The narrator of the video opened:
Okay this is a bit creepy, let me know what you guys think. So, why does NASA have all these old school cars? My thoughts are, they're cars without computers in them, all from the 1970s. They're preparing for an EMP [electromagnetic pulse] blast.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Apr 8 19:54:11 2024 UTC)
There were vintage cars and emergency vehicles parked at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, they were being used as props for a movie. The film, formerly known as "Project Artemis" (archived here) and now titled "Fly Me To The Moon" (archived here) was partly filmed at the NASA location in 2023 (archived here). The romantic comedy is expected to be released in July 2024, as seen in the trailer's description (archived here).
Craig Bailey, a visual media journalist for Florida Today, took several photographs of the vintage cars on the film's set (archived here). He even recorded a video in March 2023 showing the cars on the set (archived here).
The phrase "electromagnetic pulse" (EMP) is usually invoked when referring to an intentional nuclear attack or a space weather event (archived here). However, EMP preparation at the federal level doesn't appear to explicitly include the use of vintage cars (archived here).
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to NASA can be found here.
