Crazy bullshit
Viral photos and clips show the Moon as captured by the astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission.
Spread on: TikTok, X and Facebook, April 2026
The real story
NASA said the only official Artemis II images are the ones it publishes itself. The viral shots were either taken from Earth by photographers or generated with AI. One widely shared picture of a huge lunar crater with Earth in the background even carried a Gemini AI watermark.
The fact-checker's verdict: “False”. Our label never goes further than theirs.
How to spot it
For mission photos, go straight to the space agency's own gallery; anything not there is unconfirmed.
The receipts
These photos of the moon weren't taken by Artemis II, they are AI or taken from Earth ↗
PolitiFact · 2026-04-08
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