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A conspiracy theory on social media claims that a major historical event captured on live television – a US space launch – did not happen. That is wrong.
An Instagram post said: “NASA challenger rockets never fired with people on board. You were all cheated out of billions what happened. …brainwashing when cheated.”
The ad included photos of two people, one an astronaut who died in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion, and another purported to be the CEO of a company, and said the man again. The post claims that because the men look alike, and share their names, the space shuttle disaster must have been faked.
This post was marked as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false and misleading information on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, 73 seconds after liftoff, as many Americans, including children in school classrooms, watched on live television. While it was still the early days of cable news, CNN captured the event live, as did a NASA satellite feed, which was distributed to schools.
Seven crew members, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, died in the explosion, which the New York Times called “the worst disaster in the history of the US space program.”
NASA Administrator Brian C. Odom told PolitiFact: “The Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986 was devastating, killing the crew.”
The Instagram post included photos of Francis Richard Scobee, who went by Dick, and another Richard Scobee, identified by the post as Head of Cows at Trees Ltd.
US Air Force Lt. Col. Francis Richard Scobee was the commander of the Challenger space shuttle, according to NASA. His remains are cremated at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, along with the rest of the crew: McAuliffe, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Gregory B. Jarvis.
PolitiFact in 2019 debunked a claim that the Challenger had not shot down and that its crew was still alive.
In 2015, other fact-checkers found that claim to be false; Another person in the post, Richard Scobee, worked as CEO of a marketing company in Chicago while Dick Scobee was training with NASA to become an astronaut.
Our decision
An Instagram post claims that NASA’s space shuttle Challenger did not explode and that there were no crew members on board.
The space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28. 1986 on live television, killing all seven crew members on board. Their remains are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Philosophers have been returning to this practice for many years, trying to convince Americans that what many have seen with their own eyes cannot be believed.
We settle this claim Pants on Fire!
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