Blue Origin’s all-female flight, which sent Katy Perry into space, is now under fire from conspiracy theorists, many of whom are zeroing in on a particular image they claim shows something is “definitely wrong.”
On Monday, April 14, Blue Origin’s rocket successfully launched from Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:30 a.m. ET.
The six-woman crew included author and journalist Lauren Sánchez—fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos—and pop star Katy Perry.
It marked the first all-women crew to journey into space since the Soviet Union’s 1963 mission that launched Valentina Tereshkova into orbit.
Yet, despite the flood of footage, reports, and even clips of Jeff Bezos face-planting into the dirt, some skeptics still aren’t convinced the mission was real.
Now, a new image circulating on social media is being pointed to as supposed “proof” that the launch was faked.
Conspiracy theorists are zeroing in on a new claim about Blue Origin’s all-women space mission, focusing on an image that appears to show a “mannequin” hand.
One Twitter user shared a photo of a Blue Origin capsule, highlighting what looks like someone seated inside wearing a blue jumpsuit.
The user wrote: “Something is definitely off with the Blue Origin ‘space flight’… the one Katy Perry was on.
“People on social media are asking: where are the re-entry burn marks? And why does that hand look fake? Lol, this world is wild.”
This was the image the conspiracy theorist shared (Blue Origin/Twitter)
While it’s true that the hand in the image appears to be from a mannequin, the photo wasn’t taken during Blue Origin’s recent all-women mission. In fact, it dates back to a 2017 Blue Origin flight, as reported by Space.com at the time.
Eight years ago, Bezos’ private space company launched its first test flight of the New Shepard Crew Capsule from West Texas on December 12.
The capsule carried a dummy named “Mannequin Skywalker,” and both footage and photographs of the mannequin—taken from inside and outside the capsule—were shared online.
Ah well, better luck next time conspiracy theorists, eh?
