NASA’s Artemis II crew named a lunar crater after the commander’s late wife, but a doctored video is now convincing people none of it is real

A doctored video is circulating on X claiming to show green screen evidence that NASA’s Artemis II mission is faked. As detailed by LADbible, the clip zooms in on a plush toy floating among the crew during a televised interview featuring astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. The caption on the post read, “Yet more green screen augmented reality fails with the ZGI toy. Artemis II is not going well for those of us with discernment and common sense.”

The video was filmed off a TV screen, which introduced a text artifact not present in any of the original livestream sources broadcast by multiple major news outlets. Fact-checkers confirmed the original broadcast shows no green screen text on the plush toy, and that the circulating version had been altered. The artifact is consistent with re-streaming content with chromakey overlay processing turned on.

A group dedicated to factual reporting stated directly: “There’s a video going around claiming a ‘glitch’ during a NASA Artemis II livestream showed green screen text on a plush toy. The original broadcast does NOT show green screen text on the plush toy. The circulating version has been altered to create confusion.” The Artemis II mission is the first crewed lunar mission of its kind in over 50 years.

The mission itself has been hitting significant milestones throughout

While the conspiracy video spread online, the crew was making history. After breaking Apollo 13’s distance record from 1970, the four astronauts briefly lost contact with Earth for approximately 40 minutes as the spacecraft flew around the far side of the Moon, a standard and expected part of lunar missions. Shortly after reestablishing contact, the crew requested permission from Houston to name two newly identified lunar craters.

The first was named “Integrity,” a reference to the capsule carrying them through the mission. The second, named “Carroll,” was chosen in honor of Commander Wiseman’s wife, who passed away from cancer six years ago. The names have been permanently etched into the lunar landscape.

On Flight Day 7, the Orion spacecraft successfully executed its first return correction burn at 8:03 PM EDT. The spacecraft’s thrusters fired for 15 seconds, producing a velocity change of 1.6 feet per second to guide the crew back toward Earth. Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen monitored spacecraft configuration and navigation data throughout the maneuver.

NASA officials also confirmed during a recent mission status briefing that the USS John P. Murtha has left port and is heading to the midway point toward the recovery site in the Pacific Ocean. The agency has been providing daily Mission Status briefings covering recovery operations and weather conditions. Amid the wider space program’s ongoing developments, Trump’s ceasefire terms with Iran have dominated much of the international news cycle at the same time.

On Wednesday, April 8, the crew is scheduled to evaluate an orthostatic intolerance garment, equipment designed to help astronauts maintain blood pressure and circulation during the transition back to Earth’s gravity after extended time in microgravity. Following that, the crew will take manual control of the spacecraft, using Orion’s field of view to center a designated target before guiding the craft to a tail-to-Sun attitude and comparing the vehicle’s control modes. The manual piloting demonstration is scheduled to begin at 9:59 PM.