Did NASA Satellite Capture Chandrayaan-3 Landing? A Fact-Check

The entire world is congratulating India for the success of Chandrayaan-3, which landed in the south pole region of the Moon - a feat that wasn't achieved till now. The success was celebrated with cheers and applause at the ground station. But fake messages too started spreading on social media and were widely circulated on WhatsApp and other platforms online. As ISRO scientists waited for the right time for the Pragyan rover to come out of the Vikram lander but social media users already rolled out an image of the two payloads on the lunar surface.

Also Read | PM Modi To Meet ISRO Team Involved In Chandrayaan-3 Mission

Another fake video spreading fast shows Vikram on the Moon's surface and a blue Earth rising in the background. In the caption, some users claimed that it was clicked by a NASA satellite.

#Chandrayaan_3 Crappy images of fake moon landing. Where are the high definition pics that are expected. pic.twitter.com/PH4TmxmFuc

— Bitcoinballer (@bitcoinballer23) August 24, 2023

The American space agency was again roped in, when a video claimed to show the entire landing of Vikram ac captured by a NASA satellite. When we fact-checked the rapidly spreading video, it turned out to be of the Apollo-11 landing on the Moon years ago.

This is fake, NASA gave money & this pics to ISRO and told to publish them. Even ChandraYaan 3 is on Earth and not in Moon's orbit. Sab mile hue hai ji.

— Payal (@Payal_777) August 21, 2023

Taking it a step further, some users posted image of the lion capital of King Ashoka - the official emblem of India - along with the ISRO logo within the tread marks, which they claimed are of the rover.

WhatsApp Unkles have started forwarding fake stuff on Chandrayaan 3 mission claiming we are living an indelible mark on moon (Science added as tadka: Moon has not atmosphere! As Feynman said "Very few ask why it is so?"). pic.twitter.com/31kN9rYQNd

— Jaime Lannister (@jalanister) August 24, 2023

And some of these images were posted even before Chandrayaan-3's landed touched down on the lunar surface.

The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, are rover moving on the Moon's surface, and in-situ scientific experiments. 

Chandrayaan-3's development phase commenced in January 2020, with the launch planned sometime in 2021. However, the Covid-19 pandemic caused a delay to the mission's progress.