Fact Check: Here Is The Truth Behind Jaw-Dropping Viral Photo Of Astronaut Floating Above Earth

The viral image shows the astronaut floating in space, high above snow-capped mountain ranges on the Earth.

The digitally altered image shared on Twitter (left) and (right) Bruce McCandless II during his untethered free flight in a 1984 NASA image

New Delhi: On January 12, a Twitter user posted an image on the microblogging site claiming it was of an astronaut conducting the first “untethered free flight in space”.

The post has since gone viral, with messages pointing out issues with the image that shows an astronaut in a spacesuit floating high above snow-capped mountain ranges on Earth.  

“Insane picture of astronaut Bruce McCandless II, the first person to conduct an untethered free flight in space,” the user posted on January 12.

Insane picture of astronaut Bruce McCandless II, the first person to conduct an untethered free flight in space. pic.twitter.com/6HTKkrE0DF

— John Pompliano (@JohnPompliano) January 12, 2022

While McCandless was indeed a NASA astronaut, and the first to fly untethered from his spacecraft, the image shared in the tweet was digitally edited, users pointed out. 

Check out some of the comments: 

So funny how many ppl believe this nonsense

— AMA Archer (@icrack3dth3code) January 12, 2022

Welcome to the wonderful world of image compression and jpg artifacts

— Julius Horsthuis (@JuliusHorsthuis) January 13, 2022

Talk about trust in a myriad of things! And they actually work!!! As a software dev this scares me pantsless. https://t.co/xw4eAn4tJC

— Rafael Martínez M (@martinezmontiel) January 14, 2022

🚩🚩🚩

He did this in 1984. Literally just google his name. This photo is photoshopped tho, but only to make the mountains appear like they do. He really did this untethered. He died in 2017!

Stop spreading fake pics tho, that’s messed up.

— 🚩Crypto Cyber Police (@datcyberguy) January 12, 2022

And they are right. The image has evidently been altered. Reports, images and videos shared by NASA over time verify this. 

In 1984, after he performed the untethered spacewalk, NASA had shared an image that made McCandless famous.

The photo of the astronaut in the image shared on Twitter was also shot during the same flight. But the NASA image did not have the mountain ranges beneath. 

Here is the original NASA photo.

According to a report in USA Today, the Earth image was taken from a photo captured by someone during a Toronto-Beijing flight.

McCandless, a retired US Navy captain, was selected by NASA in April 1966. The space agency says on its website though he was “best remembered” for the untethered free flight, McCandless did “much more than that mission” during his time as an astronaut.

He was the Mission Control communicator for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moonwalk on the Apollo 11 mission.

In its statement issued after McCandless’ death in 2017, NASA said: "He will always be known for his iconic photo flying the MMU." 

Check out a NASA video of his 1984 feat.