Fact Check: International Space Station Not Orbiting Earth? Unrelated Image Shared With False Claim
A viral post claims a photo of an interview on the ISS is proof it doesn't exist. However, the image was actually taken at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Verdict [False]
This image is from a 2017 interview filmed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, not aboard the ISS, as confirmed by IMDb and YouTube archives.
What's the claim?
A photo of a person wearing a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) work suit while giving an interview—surrounded by recording equipment and cameras—has gone viral on TikTok. The post claims the image was taken aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
It includes what appears to be a behind-the-scenes shot with an overlaid caption stating that the interview was conducted in space with NASA astronaut Donald R. Pettit. Additional text in the post suggests that this "proves" the ISS is not actually in space and challenges those who believe it orbits Earth.
An archived version of the post is available here.
However, the image in question does not show an interview conducted in space. It was actually filmed at a NASA facility in Houston, Texas.
What did we find?
A reverse image search of the viral photo led us to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) page for '#WhyIMake PSA Featuring Astronaut Don Pettit,' a public service announcement filmed in 2017. The same image appears in the behind-the-scenes photos of the interview on IMDb. According to the listing, the interview was conducted at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, not in space.
We also found the full interview on YouTube (archived here). The video, uploaded by the Infosys Foundation on February 7, 2018, features Pettit discussing his experiences as an astronaut and his invention of the "Zero Gravity Cup," the first patented object invented in space.
Since the image was taken at a NASA facility on Earth, the claim that it was filmed aboard the ISS—and that it somehow proves the ISS is not in space—is false.
The ISS and 'zero gravity'
At the time of writing, on March 17, 2025, the ISS was orbiting Earth over the Atlantic Ocean, as confirmed by AstroViewer, a website that tracks the ISS in real-time. Another ISS tracker maintained by NASA corroborated this.
Inside the ISS, astronauts experience "zero gravity"—more accurately known as microgravity. This does not mean the complete absence of gravity, as some gravitational force is present throughout space. In fact, because the ISS orbits Earth, it is still subject to about 89 percent of Earth's surface gravity. However, the station and everything inside it are in a continuous state of freefall around Earth, creating the sensation of weightlessness.
Videos from the ISS, including a Skype interview with astronauts and another video uploaded to YouTube (archived here and here), clearly show objects and people floating, demonstrating the effects of microgravity.
The verdict
The viral image does not prove that the ISS is not orbiting Earth. The interview shown in the image was filmed at NASA's Johnson Space Center, not aboard the ISS. Additionally, the ISS remains in orbit, and astronauts inside experience microgravity, which accounts for the weightlessness seen in legitimate footage from space.
This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.
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