From AFP
Artemis II broadcast error used to stoke false claims mission was staged
By Ara Eugenio
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)...
Hany Farid, a co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP on April 7 that the filmed footage merely captured "a failed text overlay on the part of the broadcaster" (archived link).
"Because we only see the text on the blue part of the spinning object, I hypothesise that the broadcaster didn’t lay down a blue banner on which the text should have been overlaid," Farid said...
Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley
