You may have seen images and videos of singer Katy Perry and other celebrities in spacesuits recently - and it wasn't fake news. The singer has reached new heights after flying into space as part of an all-female flight crew on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.
The news has caused Katy Perry’s name to rocket on socials, with thousands of posts about the singer popping up worldwide.
However, some are claiming that the singer's space mission was all a conspiracy…
What conspiracies have been posted online?
One theory floating around social media is that the entire mission was faked as the door to the spaceship was opened from the inside minutes before Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, also opened it from the outside for the crew to step out.
It’s commonly thought that a hatch door can only be opened from the outside for safety reasons; however, this isn’t true for all spacecraft. NASA states in a technical brief that “doors shall be operable by a single crewmember in no more than 60 seconds, from both sides of the hatch.”
Others suspect that the celebrity mission is being used to cover up that the Earth is flat, by using a star-studded list of passengers to influence us otherwise.
Some people believe that the entire trip was staged in a film studio with CGI, and that the crew are floating in water tanks to appear as if they were in space.
A conspiracy theory is the belief that an event or situation is the result of a secret plan, usually made by powerful people. Conspiracy theories aren’t necessarily true, with many lacking real evidence, but they can still be influential.
It’s no surprise that this event has generated so many theories. Research carried out by the Pears Foundation in 2024, found the most common conspiracy theories that 11-18-year-olds encountered online or in-person, were about the moon landing being a hoax and the earth being flat.
Despite online speculation, we can say that Katy Perry and the rest of the Blue Origin crew did reach space with Blue Origin confirming the craft reached the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, the Kármán line. This is around 62 miles above mean sea level.
But how do conspiracy theories start and why do people believe them?
Social media means conspiracy theories can take off faster than ever before and can reach a much wider audience. They can also create lots of confusion; it’s sometimes hard to tell if a post is genuine or fake!
People often like to feel that they are part of a community and ‘in the know’, so that they can inform others, which can be a big incentive to spreading conspiracies. The Pears Foundation survey also found that 44% of school staff said they thought pupils discussed conspiracy theories to cause controversy.
So don’t always believe what you see online and be critical!
How to be critical of what you see online
Here’s some tips for sorting the fake from the fact:
Don’t give what you see too much gravity! Always question who’s writing. Do they have a biased view?
Always check your facts. If something you’ve heard seems out of this world, double check that it’s true with a reliable source.
Learn to recognise when you’re in an echo chamber. It can be easy for your feed to become a black hole where you only see your own opinion. Always search for the other side of the story by looking at multiple sources.
Not sure if the news you’re seeing on social media is true or false? Can you always tell if the things you see online are real or fake? Learn how to get the other side of the story with our quizzes, videos and explainers.
