Despite being live-streamed online, the recent Blue Origin space flight has become the subject of bizarre conspiracy theories.
One such theory points to a photo showing a mannequin hand as “proof” that the all-female flight never took place.
The NS-31 mission launched from Texas on Monday (April 14).
Aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket were singer Katy Perry, journalist Lauren Sánchez, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and feminist activist Amanda Nguyen.
The flight lasted 11 minutes and took the women to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, where they reportedly floated for three minutes before returning to Earth.
Absurd conspiracy theories began to swirl after a photo of a mannequin inside a Blue Origin capsule was shared online
Two days after the flight, skeptics began commenting on a photo of a synthetic hand visible through the New Shepard capsule window, alleging that Jeff Bezos and the six women had orchestrated a hoax.
“Why is there a dummy hand on the Blue Origin?” one person asked.
Another wrote: “That sure looks like a mannequin, shiny hand.”
“I def think this was staged,” a third person shared.
“This whole thing was a movie set. They went nowhere,” someone else agreed.
The 11-minute flight took an all-female crew to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space
Image credits: blueorigin
Image credits: Blue Origin
The “movie set” conspiracy theory claims that mannequins were inside the New Shepard capsule when it landed, and that someone “cut the camera” to a shot showing the women exiting the spacecraft.
The mannequin hand reportedly belongs to a dummy used for a test flight of the New Shepard Crew Capsule 2.0 on December 12, 2017.
The flight included a mannequin which had been jokingly nicknamed Mannequin Skywalker, the hand of which can be seen in the viral image, as per The Daily Mail.
A group people have claimed that the flight used mannequins and was staged from a movie set
Some netizens responded to the skeptics, explaining that the mannequin’s space suit appeared much looser compared to the fitted suits worn by the women.
Moreover, the women’s space suits featured black detailing, whereas the mannequin’s stripes were white.
“All the women pants do not have a white strip,” one person remarked. “And, notice the color difference on the uniform sleeves.”
Another noticeable difference can be observed in the capsule itself: the one from the 2017 launch featured blue lettering, while the NS-31 crew capsule had black lettering.
Image credits: Blue Origin
Image credits: SpecialKD_
A separate group of conspiracy theorists focused on the capsule door. When the crew returned to Earth, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos opened the door to greet them.
Minutes earlier, footage showed the door opening from the inside. Skeptics pointed to this as a contradiction and accused Blue Origin of poorly executing its “hoax.”
“Did y’all see the clip where the women inside the capsule open the door but are immediately told to close it so that Bezos can pretend like he’s the one releasing them from it? LOL,” said one Redditor.
“I still want to know why Neil A. (Armstrong) spells Alien backwards!” commented another.
Others questioned why Jeff Bezos opened the capsule door from the outside after landing when a previous shot showed it being opened from the inside
It is possible that spacecraft doors can be opened from both sides. NASA’s safety requirements state that “doors shall be operable by a single crew member in no more than 60 seconds, from both sides of the hatch.”
Others thought the state of the capsule after landing looked suspicious. “I love how it perfectly touched down on perfectly flat ground and despite the video of dust blowing everywhere, the video of them getting out shows no dust on the capsule.”
The flight was the 11th human flight for the New Shepard program, which has flown 52 people, including Jeff Bezos in July 2021.
