Video is wrong, International Space Station and astronauts are not faking it | Fact check

Isabella Fertel, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Video of astronaut in front of grid background is proof space isn’t real

A May 5 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) features a video clip showing an astronaut conducting experiments in front of a blue and white grid background.

"NASA astroNOT Tim Peake caught on camera in front of a chroma key background to fake being on the ISS," reads the text underneath the video.

The post garnered more than 1,000 likes in two weeks.

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Our rating: False

The blue and white grid backdrop is a scientific tool used to conduct experiments on the International Space Center, not a chroma key background. There is no evidence the footage of Peake or other astronauts aboard the International Space Station is computer-generated.

Grid backdrop used to conduct experiments in space

The video footage used in the post is real, taken during former President George H.W. Bush’s 2016 visit to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In the first few seconds of the video, a large screen showing astronaut Tim Peake in front of a blue and white grid is visible in the background.

The post mentions chroma keying, a special effects tool that allows video editors to replace the background of footage shot in front of a solid-color background like a green screen.

But the grid backdrop is not a chroma key background as the post suggests, according to Sophie Allan, head of learning and teaching at the United Kingdom’s National Space Academy.

“It is a piece of fabric hung up inside the International Space Station,” Allan told USA TODAY in an email. “It is used, like a piece of graph paper, as a reference – both for camera angles and also for our own analysis.”

In this case, Peake was performing several experiments designed by the Academy to demonstrate basic elements of physics to students.

“The thought behind these experiments was to use the unique environment of microgravity to demonstrate key physics concepts that are hard to show under the effects of gravity on Earth,” Allan said in the email. “It would be harder to fake the results than it was to send the experiments up into space!

Fact check: Rocket propulsion functions in space because of universal physical laws, no air required

The International Space Station was launched into low-Earth orbit in 1998. Since then, more than 200 astronauts from 20 countries have visited the station, according to Kelly Humphries, news chief at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

“At no time have props, green screen, wires or simulated underwater facilities substituted for actual real-time operation on the space station,” Humphries told USA TODAY in an email.

An abundance of evidence shows that outer space exists, including physical samples retrieved from Earth's moon, the development of a space tourism industry and images of spacecraft and people in space.

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Reuters also debunked this claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: International Space Station, NASA are not faking video | Fact check