NASA's historic lunar fly-by in April 2026 sent astronauts farther from Earth than any human before, but social media users stirred up conspiracy theories the mission was staged -- sharing a video of text appearing through the trip's official mascot as proof. A digital forensics expert told AFP the anomaly was a failed text overlay by the news station that syndicated the official feed, which showed the plush toy remained solid throughout.
"Green screen??? this is from Artemis live on YouTube!" reads overlaid text on a Facebook video shared on April 6, 2026.
It features a smartphone recording of a television broadcast of an interview with the Artemis II crew as they floated in microgravity.
A woman can be heard asking off-camera, "what's up with the lettering behind this ball?" as the camera zooms in on captions that appear superimposed on parts of the mission's official Moon mascot.
The claim surfaced as four astronauts captivated the world with live images from a years-in-the-making flyby of the Earth's natural satellite aboard the Orion space capsule (archived link).
The Artemis II crew -- NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen -- made history as the first humans to fly around the Moon for the first time in half-a-century, venturing deeper into space than ever before.
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