Latest revision as of 13:30, 15 October 2026

V • T • E

This page is intended to document and debunk denial of the Artemis II mission; a behaviour universally exhibited by flerfs.

April 1st

Flerfs don't like the launch date as if something happening on April 1st meant that it's fake.

Hello World

Flatearthers use two photos taken by Artemis II while pretending that one of them is from the Apollo missions. Some of them also think that the two photos are taken 12 hours apart, as one of them is brightened, while at the same time demonstrating that they can't be 12 hours apart and then blame NASA for it.^[1] ^[2]

Source files and EXIF metadata (originals + JSON)

Asset ID	NASA Images catalog	Original JPG	Machine-readable metadata
art002e000193	images.nasa.gov	orig	metadata.json
art002e000192	images.nasa.gov	orig	metadata.json

The Blue Marble from 1972 is the one below.^[3] As flerfs don't notice, "Blue Marble" is showing the day side of earth, while "Hello World" was taken at night.

Jared Polin made a video explaining the difference between the photos.^[4]

Dave McKeegan also made a video explaining the photo.^[5]

Earthrise

They try to do the same thing with earthrise, by using two times an earthrise photo from Apollo 11, claiming it's Apollo 8, and slightly manipulate one. The actual photo taken during Artemis II is very different.^[6] It doesn't even show the same phase.

Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP

Jared Polin also made a video comparing the two earthrise photos.^[7]

Balloon

Flerfs are also trying to claim that the Artemis rocket is a balloon by using AI generated images.

If you compare it to a photo of the actual rocket, it becomes immediately obvious that they don't even look the same.^[8]

They also think that NASA using heat proof fabric is evidence that it's a balloon.

^[9]

When actually looking at the engines, they don't even remotely look like balloons. Of course not a single flatearther even bothered to find this photo.

^[10]

Moon Zoom

Apparently flerfs don't even know that zoom exists.

There are birds therefore fake

According to DITRH there being birds is evidence of it being fake.

DITRH: Look, there there's always going to be an animal. So, they have a bird. They have a fake bird flying to the scene right now.

^[11]

Different angles therefore fake

DITRH also thinks that an event switching between different cameras, something that happens in virtually every major live event, means that it's fake.^[12]

Toilet Location

The answer to question 1 can be seen in the diagram.

^[13]

There is also a video explaining the set up.^[14]

To answer question 2, there is no air in space to slow down the rocket. Furthermore forces depend on acceleration, not speed. So it doesn't matter how fast they are moving.

Escape vehicle

Flerfs think the Emergency Egress System baskets leaving the launch tower, means that the astronauts left the rockets before launch. The baskets are automatically released at launch to prevent them from being damaged. The flerfs don't even bother to think that if it was faked, the astronauts would have been evacuated earlier, or wouldn't have entered the rocket in the first place.

Globey McGlobeface made a video showing that the baskets were empty.^[15]

Green Screen

Glitch

Flerfs think that text showing up on the stuffed toy that the Artemis crew had on board is evidence of a green screen. The text is caused by an overlay from the news broadcast. NASA's original broadcast doesn't have that issue.

^[16]

Studio

Conspiracy nuts use an AI generated image as evidence of Artemis being filmed using a green screen.

The first time to the moon

Flerfs also misquote Reid Wiseman at a press conference on September 24, 2025.^[17]

Reid Wiseman: This is the first time we are going to send humans to the moon.

The full quote is actually:

Reid Wiseman: This is the first time we are going to send humans to the moon and have humans in low earth orbit.

No lunar lander on the flight

Awake Souls and Co complained about them not taken a lunar lander on Artemis II. ^[18] Artemis II, as NASA said from the beginning is just a fly-by. Carrying the lander is just useless weight, and is done in a later mission.

Hologram projectors

David Weiss claims that the lightning towers are hologram projectors.^[19] Holograms can't create the kind of heat and noise a rocket produces.

David Weiss: Let's talk about this towers. I saw somebody did a thing where there's a technology where they can have three towers that can project a real life looking hologram.

^[20]

Reflections

Flatearthers are hallucinating another person on Orion.

Christina Koch actress

Flatearthers think that the Christina Koch is an actress because there is an actress of the same name in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. ^[21] ^[22]

Movies therefore fake

Flatearthers also bring up the movies Capricorn One and Fly me to the moon as evidence that the NASA missions must have been faked.

Fly me to the moon was filmed after NASA announced the new mission to be called Artemis. For that reason the movie producers choose that name for their mission of faking the moon landings. In the movie they did not need to fake the landings as they succeeded the actual landings.

The rocket doesn't go straight up

Flerfs keep using the age old claim that rockets don't go straight up therefore it must be fake. Anyone who understands rockets, knows that they first go into orbit.

^[23]

Astronauts aren't visible in phone screens

The conspiracy nuts are so desperate, they claim the astronauts aren't real, because they don't see them in phone screens. The resolution is shit when filming a phone screen, but the astronauts are still visible. I don't even understand how that's even a point. If Artemis was faked, they would still just have some people walk around there.

^[24]

The Debunker made a video about that.^[25]

Shiny heatshield

Conspiracy nuts think that the footage of the heatshield is fake, because it's shiny when it separates from the service module and charred after reentry. The charred heatshield is actually Artemis I, but Artemis II uses the same one as seen in the underwater photo underneath.

^[26]

^[27]

^[28]

With even the tiniest bit of research you can find the heatshield being installed and it is shiny as seen during the separation.

^[29]

Related to the heatshield is another conspiracy theory that there should be steam at splashdown. By the time it reaches the ocean, it already cooled down a lot to not be hot enough to produce steam.

Footage

The astronauts didn't take footage with their phones

There are some who require the astronauts to take videos with their phone to show it's real.

The astronauts did take footage using their phones. ^[30]

^[31]

^[32]

Forgot to take photos

People like DITRH think the astronauts didn't take photos.

Dave: They're just going to the moon and taking pictures, but they forgot to put the camera up to the window and take pictures.

^[33]

In reality they took over 12,000 photos.^[34]

No video of the astronauts from inside

Dave: During the launch, there's no video of them inside. Never. Never. Almost 18,000 miles hour.

^[35]

Of course there is a video of the astronauts from inside the capsule at launch.^[36]

Camera panning

There is a clip circulating on X, where the camera films the astronauts and then pans to the window. That video is AI generated by using two real images and splice them together with an AI animation. ^[37]

^[38]

NASA logo didn't burn

There is an image circulating showing a space capsule after splashdown with the NASA logo intact.

^[39]

That image is actually AI generated. On the real capsule the logo burned off.

^[40]

Why were the astronauts shaven

Another conspiracy theory is that it's fake because the astronauts couldn't have shaved in the capsule. That is of course ridiculous, as this photo of Jeremy Hansen shaving shows.

^[41]

No Satellites

A very common claim is that the photos are fake, because you can't see satellites. There are satellites actually visible in the photos.

^[42]

Scary Numbers

Dave Weiss made a list of numbers about Artemis II to claim they encoded the conspiracy nuts favorite numbers. ^[43] To do that he cherry picks some values and switches units depending on what is closer to the number he likes.

Thrust

According to Dave the thrust of the boosters is 3.3 million pound force each. ^[43] The actual thrust per booster is between 3.28 Mlbf at sea level and 3.68 Mlbf in a vacuum. ^[44]

So he used the lowest thrust of one booster and rounded it up to have two threes, one after the other to claim it's 33.

Living space

Dave's claim of the living space being 330 cubic feet is actually correct. ^[43]^[45] Once again 330 is not 33.

The total pressurized volume is 690.6 cubic feet, a number he of course doesn't like.

Capsule height

The capsule height is an example where Dave switched to metric^[43], as the imperial measurement didn't give him a value he liked. The capsule height is 11 feet or 3.353m, which would round to 3.4m.^[45]

Personal Preference Kit

Another 3.3, not 33, is the weight limit of the astronauts' Personal Preference Kit (PPK) in pounds. ^[43] ^[46]

Numerology

He even tries to use numerology.^[43]

If you use the position of the letter in the alphabet you would get 1+18+20+5+13+9+19+2 = 87. Apparently he added the digits of the positions to get a single digit for each letter. For example R = 18 = 1 + 8 = 9.

Watches

The only time I saw where he actually has a 33, is for the model of the watch the astronauts are wearing, an Omega X-33.^[43]

Rocket height

The rocket does indeed have a height of 322.4 feet.^[43]^[47]

Rocket speed

The rocket reaches a speed of 24,661.21 mph, which is about 33 times the speed of sound.^[43]

Crew confronted at the Capitol

On May 12, the crew of Artemis II visited the Capitol and were confronted by a conspiracy theorist shoving a camera in their faces. ^[48] He yelled at the crew,

Stop lying, stop acting. You all never went to space... [long awkward pause]. Follow Jesus, God's watching you all. Stop lying to the public. Your psyop isn't working, on millions of us. NASA's a joke. Repent before God ya'll.

The astronauts kept their composure and refrained from engaging with the clearly deranged individual. Glover gave him a slight nod and a wave as the crew exited the room. Security then prevented the man from following them. ^[49] Conspiracy theorists proclaim that you can "see it on their faces" that the Artemis crew is lying, as if they demonstrated anything other than a normal reaction to an aggressive, mentally unwell person asserting they didn't do something which they obviously did. Of course, any attempt by the crew to engage with the man would've elicited conspiracy theorists to say something like "why are they trying so hard to defend themselves if it's so obvious they went to space?".

The man was later identified on social media to be Joseph Phillip Daniel, ^[50] a conspiracy theorist and self-described "ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ" ^[51] known for this confrontational style of content. Unfortunately, he didn't get the Buzz Aldrin treatment like his forerunner Bart Sibrel.

Thumbs up missing delay

During coverage of Artemis II's lunar flyby, mission control was communicating with the crew about the fan speed onboard Orion ahead of a "conversation" with US president Donald Trump. The communication was as follows (from the perspective of the broadcast):

Houston: Integrity, Houston; we are three minutes out from an on-time start, and we have adjusted the fan speed. We'll take a thumbs up if you're happy with it.
[Wiseman immediately gives a thumbs up, starting the motion as the controller says "thumbs up"]
Houston: Copy, thumbs up.
[Koch, then Glover, then Wiseman, then Hansen (behind the camera) give a thumbs up]
Houston: [laughter in background] Superlative thumbs up!

Artemis deniers claim that there should have been a significant delay before the first thumbs up (at lunar distance this would be about 2.6 seconds). They argue the seemingly immediate thumbs up is evidence the crew is in a studio on Earth and forgot to "fake the delay". ^[52]

Anyone who watches the clip in full could easily see that Wiseman's first thumbs up was in response to the controller saying "we have adjusted the fan speed". The second thumbs up was in response to the controller saying "we'll take a thumbs up if you're happy with it". Wiseman gave the second so enthusiastically because he realised the humour in giving the first before the controller had even asked. The controller mistakenly took the first thumbs up as a direct response to the thumbs-up-request, which is why she said "copy, thumbs up" before the second thumbs up was given.

If Artemis II was actually faked in a studio on Earth, it wouldn't take a genius to come up with the idea of adding an artificial delay to the communication, rather than telling the crew to fake it themselves.

Service module nozzles

Dave intentionally lies about the service module nozzle by using a low quality video.^[53]

A higher quality video shows the nozzles more clearly.^[54]

To see how large the nozzles actually are, here is a photo from the installation process.^[55]

Acceleration

Dave: So, I'll tell you it's 20 I think it's 25,000 mph or something somewhere around there. I did the calculations. the in the six minutes that the engines are working, it would have to increase 200 miles an hour like every four or five seconds. Have you ever gone from zero to 200 in four seconds? You would you would you would and and they're there just no human.

^[56]

If Dave did the math, he would notice that the g-force is only about 2.279G, a bit more than twice Earth's gravitational pull. Rollercoasters easily reach 3G, and healthy people don't die from that. Maybe he did the calculations, and hides it.