Elon Musk’s SpaceX made history this morning after conducting the world’s first commercial spacewalk — the most ambitious goal of the Polaris Dawn mission.
But an outrageous theory circulating online claims the spaceflight company faked the whole thing, similar to the moon landing conspiracy.
Conspiracy theorists responded to a live-streamed video of the spacewalk on X, formerly Twitter, by saying it did not appear to be real footage from space.
“This looks just as fake as when NASA faked it,” wrote user X James Doty.
“Until I fly into space myself, I’m convinced this shit is fake; anyone with a brain can figure it out,” wrote user X ifxgabriel.
There’s no evidence to suggest SpaceX faked the Polaris Dawn spacewalk, but it’s not the first time people have called out a bold space mission as a “sham” — and it likely won’t be the last.
Polaris Dawn mission commander Jared Isaacman emerged from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft early this morning and ventured into the vacuum of space.
The Polaris Dawn mission launched early Tuesday morning, carrying four private astronauts into space aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The mission had several challenging and dangerous objectives. First, Crew Dragon would fly farther than any spacecraft since man first set foot on the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
To do so, it would have to pass through the Van Allen radiation belt, an area of extremely high space radiation that threatens both the health of astronauts and the functionality of the spacecraft.
Polaris Dawn managed to achieve both objectives without major setbacks.
But the biggest test came this morning, when mission commander Jared Isaacman and mission specialist Sarah Gillis ventured outside the Crew Dragon wearing suits that had never before been tested in space.
SpaceX livestreamed the nearly two-hour-long process from start to finish on X, though Isaacman and Gillis only spent about 10 minutes each outside the spacecraft.
Isaacman was the first to emerge around 6:50 a.m. ET, using a “Skywalker” scaffolding-like structure that extended from the hatch to provide stability.
Once exposed to the vacuum of space, Isaacman performed a series of planned movements to test the mobility and comfort of his pressurized spacesuit.
During the livestream of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn spacewalk, some viewers claimed the footage had to be fake. One pointed to Isaacman’s awkward arm position as evidence
But as soon as Isaacman emerged from Crew Dragon, a group of viewers began responding to the livestream saying the footage had to be fake.
“You’re talking about the moon landings being fake, what the hell is wrong with his left arm?” User X Randy Bohling responded.
Gillis performed the same spacewalk protocol after Isaacman returned inside, but conspiracy theorist onlookers were also unconvinced.
But these claims are false. There is no factual evidence to support the idea that SpaceX faked this spacewalk or any aspect of the Polaris Dawn mission.
Ever since the Apollo missions, people have been claiming that space missions (and the images and films captured during them) are fake.
Conspiracy theories surrounding the moon landings have persisted for more than 50 years, despite a large amount of objective information proving that these theories are false.
Conspiracy theorists argue that certain aspects of Apollo mission photographs (such as the orientation of shadows, the lack of stars, and the waving American flag) are proof that the moon landings were faked.
But each of these theories has been debunked.
Conspiracy theorists have seized on this photo as proof that the moon landings were not real because the shadows in the image are not parallel, but this is actually due to perspective.
Some believe that shadows in the moon landing photographs are proof that the image was manipulated. This claim is based on the fact that these shadows are not parallel to each other.
The idea behind this is that if the sun were the only light source (as would be the case if the photo had been taken on the moon), the shadows should be parallel to each other, but that is not true.
Due to the influence of perspective, shadows can appear non-parallel to each other even when there is only one light source. If you go outside when the sun is low in the sky, you can see this effect for yourself.
Conspiracy theorists have also pointed to the lack of stars in the moon landing photos as a reason to believe the images cannot be real.
The reason no stars appear in landing photos is because the lunar surface is brightly illuminated by the sun, which hides the stars.
The American flag appears to be waving in this photograph because a telescopic pole has been inserted along the top edge of the flag.
But the reason the stars don’t appear in these photos is because the moon is brightly illuminated by the sun, preventing the camera from seeing the distant stars.
The photograph of the American flag planted on the lunar surface remains one of the most iconic images of the moon landing.
But some believe it had to be staged because the flag is “waving” even though there is no atmosphere or wind on the moon.
However, if you look closely at the top edge of the flag, you can see that a telescopic pole has been extended along the top to make the flag fly.
Thus, each of these theories – and others that question the authenticity of the moon landings – have been discredited.
But as the Polaris Dawn spacewalk has shown us, this kind of thinking isn’t going away anytime soon.