Video of NASA astronaut 'dropping globe' does not prove 'International Space Station is fake'

One Australia-based Facebook user shared the 29-second video alongside a caption that reads: "NASA drops the ball on the international fake station" on March 18.

It shows five NASA astronauts inside the International Space Station (ISS). The astronaut standing on the far right of the screen can be seen holding a small globe under his arm, which then appears to drop below the camera's view.

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A screenshot of the false post, captured on April 25.

The clip has been viewed thousands of times on QAnon Telegram groups with many subscribers (including here, here and here). It has also been shared in the United States, Britain, Ireland and Indonesia.

Comments on the posts indicated some users believed the video shows the ISS is "fake" and that it was in fact filmed on Earth.

"That big studio they have at nasa comes in handy," read one Facebook comment.

"Love this video! Totally exposed!" another comment read.

However, experts have told AFP the globe was in fact pushed "downwards" by the astronaut before it later floated back upwards.

Floating objects

Through a reverse image search, AFP found the original video on YouTube titled "Earth Day Q&A with Astronauts in Space" published by NASA on April 23, 2021 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and the corresponding section of the NASA video, which is more than 21 minutes long (right):

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A screenshot comparison of the misleading post (left) and the original video (right).

At the 18-minute and 30-second mark of the original video, astronaut Michael Hopkins can be heard talking about watching a hurricane on Earth from the ISS, at which point the globe appears to drop from under his arm.

Shortly afterward at the 18-minute and 50-second mark, the globe can be seen floating back up towards Hopkins, who reaches out to catch it.

Alice Gorman, an associate professor from Flinders University who has conducted years of research in space exploration, explained that the globe appeared to be dropping because the video has been orientated "so that everyone is facing the same way with their heads and feet aligned".

She said the globe could be considered to be floating upwards because "there's no direction of microgravity" in space, adding that every object in the video would be subject to the laws of gravity if the video was fake.

"How do they explain the floating of the microphone between the crew members?" Gorman told AFP on April 21.

She went on to say Hopkins actually gestured "downwards" when he released the globe from under his arm, which could explain why it appeared to drop.

"The ball acquired energy from the movement of the Hopkins, so it has an initial direction, but as that force dissipates, we see the ball floating randomly back towards the crew," she said.

Gail Iles, a physics lecturer at Melbourne's RMIT University, also said Hopkins was seen trying to stop the ball from falling but he instead "imparted a force on the ball, which pushes it down".

Iles provided AFP with a screenshot comparison of Hopkins' arm movement.

The green lines show objects that are aligned in both shots, while the red lines show how Hopkins' arm moved downwards:

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A screenshot comparison of the astronaut's arm movement.

Commenting on the motion seen in the video, Iles said: "His arm has moved downwards. He has pushed the ball downwards. It’s the same as throwing a ball away from you. It moves away."

A NASA spokesperson told AFP on April 26 that Hopkins applied a "small amount of force" onto the globe and moved it away from him.

The ISS was launched in 1998 and has been visited by 266 individuals from 20 countries. The station has been continuously crewed since November 2000, according to the spokesperson.