Fact Check: Video showing astronauts on moon makes a false claim of connection to Chandrayaan-3, is fictional
Indian moon-landing spacecraft, Chandrayaan -3 was launched on July 14, 2023, and is going to make a soft landing on the moon on August 23 after completing a 40-day journey.
Indian moon-landing spacecraft, Chandrayaan -3 was launched on July 14, 2023, and is going to make a soft landing on the moon on August 23 after completing a 40-day journey. Meanwhile, it has been capturing images of the moon and Isro has been publishing them on its social media accounts.
This mission of Isro has become very popular among Indian citizens and several social media users are sharing videos and images about the mission. Some users have shared a video with a narrative in Hindi which claims that a scientific search team has been launched by India through Chandrayaan-3. A Hindi song is playing in the background. The claim in Hindi reads: “चंद्रयान 3 लॉन्च के बाद वैज्
When translated, it claims: “Scientific search time after the launch of Chandrayaan-3. This time India did something different. Watch the video”
Several Facebook users have shared a video showing two astronauts walking on a planet (presumably moon) and searching a wreckage found there. Few other people are also seen in the video.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/
Fact Check:
The claim is misleading. The video is a fictional one as Chandrayaan-3, as claimed by Isro, is an unmanned mission.
According to Isro, Chandrayaan -3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It is an unmanned mission consisting of an indigenous lander module, a propulsion module, and a rover.
The lander will softly land on the moon and deploy the rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface. So, all the research work will be done by the rover and not the astronauts.
When we performed a reverse image search using the key frames extracted from the video, we found a YouTube video that shows similar visuals as seen in the viral video. The video is a theatrical trailer of ‘Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon’ published on April 29, 2011. The description states that the video shows the second theatrical trailer of ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ in HD, which will hit theatres on June 29th, 2011, in 3D and IMAX.
We also found a video published in May 2021, with the title ‘Transformers 3 – Apollo 11 finds alien spaceship on the Moon by a YouTube channel named Cinematic Style. The description of the video states that ‘Apollo 11 arrives at the Moon and finds the crashed Autobot spaceship. Transformers: Dark of the Moon 2011 scene.’
When observed carefully, we can see that the viral video was extracted from 3.24 mins to 4.54 mins of this YouTube video.
Hence, the video is not relating to the Chandrayaan -3 expedition as it is an unmanned mission. The claim is misleading.