Video shows NASA's Artemis I launch, not 'Chinese artificial sun'

"Moments when China's artificial sun was launched," says the Indonesian-language text overlaid on this TikTok video, posted on April 3, 2023. "They want to be like God. Astaghfirullah."

"Astaghfirullah" is an Arabic expression which means "I seek forgiveness in God" (archived link).

The three-minute video, which has racked up more than 10 million views, shows a crowd of people standing next to a board showing a digital countdown timer. When the timer reaches "00:00:00", a bright light appears on the horizon and the ball of light then rises up into the night sky.

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Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on June 14, 2023

China's nuclear fusion reactors are known as "artificial sun" because they mimic the energy-generation process of the Sun (archived link).

In 2020, China successfully powered up its "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactor -- the HL-2M Tokamak reactor, in Sichuan province -- for the first time. It also has two other "artificial sun" nuclear fusion reactors: the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), located in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, and J-TEXT in Wuhan (archived links here and here).

The video has been viewed more than 1.9 million times after it was shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok here and here, YouTube here and here and SnackVideo here and here.

However, the claim is false.

NASA's rocket launch

A reverse image search using keyframes from the video and subsequent keyword searches found that the clip corresponds with a video of NASA's Artemis I rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on November 16, 2022 (archived link).

According to the video's description, the rocket was launched from the KSC's launch pad 39B.

At the 1:02 mark, the footage shows a scene similar to the one in the misleading video, but taken from slightly different angle.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the genuine video from NASA (right) with similar features -- including a flag pole, the countdown timer and groups of people -- marked by AFP:

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Screenshot comparison of video on the misleading post (left) and the genuine video from NASA (right)

"We have quite a bit of media outlets and content creators that were permitted to view the launch from the KSC Press Site, but it does look as though the video is of the Artemis I launch," Tiffany Fairley, a public affairs officer for NASA's KSC, told AFP, referring to the misleading video.

The body of water that can be seen in the video, separating the spectators and the rocket launch, is the KSC's Turn Basin (archived link). The blue and black clock board on the right side is NASA’s famed countdown board, which is located at the KSC Press Site (archived link).

KSC Launch Complex 39B, where the Artemis I launched, is located around five kilometres (three miles) away, northwest of the countdown clock.

According to NASA, Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. It is not a project that involves "an artificial sun".

"NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission was the first integrated flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The successful mission proved that the deep space rocket, spacecraft and upgraded ground systems needed for launch and recovery are ready to support future Artemis missions with astronauts aboard," Fairley said.

In 2022, AFP also debunked another false claim about China launching an "artificial sun".