International Space Station video has been altered to make it look like a fake

A real NASA video has been digitally altered to add a man drinking and waving. The edited clip is being widely shared on X (formerly Twitter) implying that it proves this space footage has been faked.

The video, which has also been shared on Facebook in the past, shows a team of astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS), with an arrow pointing to a man who appears to be drinking from a mug or a glass in normal gravity beside them. Soon afterwards, the man waves at the camera.

One X account sharing the video says: “NASA forgets one of the studio technicians is still in the background, drinking his coffee, putting it down... 😂😂😂 This was a live broadcast…” While the caption on the Facebook post reads: “throwback when : NASA forgets one of the studio technicians is still in the background during a ‘live’ broadcast from the International Fake Station.”

In fact, the footage of this man has been added afterwards. The original video was posted on YouTube by NASA’s official account in September 2019. From 5 minutes and 13 seconds, you can see the same clip where the altered video begins, in which the astronaut at the front left turns towards the centre of the group before the astronaut in the middle raises a hand to his headphones.

We’ve not been able to establish where the footage of the man drinking and waving comes from.

We have fact checked false claims that space missions have been faked several times before. This is often part of the false conspiracy theory that the Earth is flat. (It is not.)