Does this video showcase live footage of the Luna-25 crash landing on the moon’s surface?
Claim
Rating
Explanation
Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.
LIVE Footage,
How Russia’s Luna-25 has crashed into the Moon.#Luna25 #Russia #MoonLanding #Chandrayaan3Mission #Chandrayaan3 #Luna25Crash #VikramLander pic.twitter.com/2hdwiWOg1b
— Apex News India (@ApexNewsIndia) August 21, 2023
Meantime, in the above 15-second timelength viral clip shared by the user namely “JKSSB Aspirants” claimed that the video shows the live footage of how the spacecraft of Russia Luna-25 crashed into the moon’s surface. In the video, we are able to see an object freely falling towards the surface which is grey in colour and suddenly it explodes.
This video went viral on social media with similar claims widely spread by many users which can be seen here, here and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of the viral claims.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research with the relevant keyframes using google lens, we came to know that the viral clip does not belong to the Luna-25 spacecraft crash on the moon’s surface. Yes, we found the same viral clip on the stock photo website namely Alamy.com where we can clearly see the date mentioned as 3 February 2022. The video is uploaded with the title “Second Stage Rocket Booster Crashing into the Moon and Exploding – Close” by the contributor namely “BlackBoxGuild”. So, it’s clearly evident that this viral clip is a year old one and not the crashing of the Luna-25 Russian spacecraft on the surface of the moon.
Moreover, we got the viral clip revealing that this is a screengrab from NASA itself which was published on 20 July 2018. The video is shared with the title, “60 Years of NASA, Celebrating Where Art and Science Meet”.
The 4-minute 48-second video has that same viral clip around the timeline from 2:10 to 2:18 which we can visualize except for the additional added cylindrical object. So, this again proves that the viral clip claiming that the Luna-25 crashed on the moon’s surface is an edited version of a NASA video uploaded in 2018.
According to the article published in “The Indian Express” The Russian space agency, Roscomos has announced there was “an emergency situation” in the landing of Luna-25 and the spacecraft has lost contact. On Sunday, Roscosmos announced Russia’s spacecraft the Luna-25, encountered a catastrophic failure and crashed ultimately into the surface of the moon.
“The measures taken on August 19 (Saturday) and 20 (Sunday) to search for Luna-25 and get in touch with it did not produce any results,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
In the whole article nowhere they have released any video or any viral clips as claimed by the social media users. Likewise, we searched all the news outlets for this viral clip but unfortunately, we were not able to find any.
Moreover, the Russian space agency Roscomos released a press release on 20 August, saying that the Luna-25 spacecraft has crash landed on the moon’s surface but there were no videos attached to their official statement.
This further clarifies all the confusion and proves the video is old and edited which is circulated with false claims.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude through our investigation that the above viral clip is taken from the NASA website and then edited with the cylindrical object which is freely falling and then exploding. Moreover, this edited version is also available on the stock photo website Alamy.com. This proves that the viral clip is shared with false and misleading narratives.
