Video altered to wrongly claim NASA used poor editing to 'fake space' | Fact check
The claim: Video shows NASA used editing tricks to 'fake space'
An April 16 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be an astronaut inside a spacecraft, preparing a package of green food in zero gravity.
A narrator speaks as the astronaut demonstrates how he opens the package and uses a spoon: “I always said, ‘The hand is quicker than the eye.’ Well, in this case, it’s true, because all they ever want to do on the space station is have you watch whatever they are spinning in their hands.”
The narrator urges viewers to focus on a floating pair of scissors in the top right corner of the video instead of the astronaut. The video then zooms in on the scissors, which appear to glitch in movement several times. The narrator says the scissors are edited.
The caption on the post says, “NASA Busted Using Magic Tricks to Fake Space.”
The video, which originated on TikTok, was shared on Facebook more than 1,000 times.
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Our rating: Altered
The zoomed-in video in the post is misleading. The original, full-frame footage makes it clear the video is a montage of different stages of food preparation, which is why the position of the scissors and other objects move abruptly. The video was filmed aboard the International Space Station, a real laboratory that orbits Earth.
Video edits were standard, not proof space is fake
The Facebook clip comes from a May 2013 segment on “Adam Savage’s Tested,” a popular YouTube channel that explores science and technology.
The segment was about creating a new recipe for astronauts to enjoy aboard the International Space Station. Once the recipe was made, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield demonstrated how to open and eat one of the packages of food in zero gravity. Multiple objects were floating around Hadfield during the segment, not just scissors.
The Facebook version zoomed in on the pair of scissors beside Hadfield, implying they’ve been poorly edited to “fake” floating. But there's no sleight of hand here – the video is simply multiple clips spliced together with a voiceover to create a montage of Hadfield’s demonstration, a common editing practice.
These edits are why the scissors moved the way they did – Hadfield and several other objects in the segment moved the same way.
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Multiple lines of evidence show space is real. The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed thousands of distant galaxies and other celestial objects, and so has its more modern equivalent, the James Webb Space Telescope.
For more than 20 years, the International Space Station has been in continuous orbit around Earth, manned by space agencies from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Japan and Europe.
Teams of astronauts aboard the craft have conducted scientific investigations that led to hundreds of research articles, NASA writes. In 2023 alone, about 500 investigations were conducted, including how to regenerate skin tissue to heal wounds, how to produce better ultrasound images and how to improve solar materials.
“Over the last 25 years, the space station has transformed into an orbiting laboratory with research capabilities that enable scientists from over 109 different nations to conduct over 3,300 groundbreaking experiments in an extreme and unique environment,” NASA’s 2023 annual highlights report reads.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
Adam Savage's Tested (YouTube), May 17, 2013, Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Chef David Chang Test Gourmet Space Food
StudioBinder, accessed April 26, What is a Montage? Definition, Examples & 6 Ways to Use Them
NASA, accessed April 24, International Space Station Facts
NASA, accessed April 24, Space Station Research Results
NASA, accessed April 24, Annual Highlights of Results from the International Space Station 2023
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA did not use video edits to 'fake' space | Fact check
