As Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed Moon mission in more than 50 years, heads for a Pacific splashdown after a record-setting 252,756-mile flight, flat Earth figures question its authenticity
Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years, has gripped the world since its launch, but some flat-earthers aren’t convinced. The four-person crew has been taking part in an epic 10-day journey before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday.
Earlier this week, the crew eclipsed the record for the farthest human spaceflight from Earth, reaching a distance of approximately 252,756 miles. This broke the previous record held by Apollo 13 since 1970.
Nevertheless, the groundbreaking mission has left a handful of people more sceptical now than ever before. “It has been in theatres since minute one,” Mark Sargent exclaimed.
Sargent is a notable figure within the flat Earth movement. Many will recognise him from the 2018 Netflix documentary Behind the Curve.
“Artemis II is absolutely fake, 100%,” Sargent exclusively told the Daily Star. He claimed that NASA’s Artemis programme has been “theatre since minute one”.
According to the controversial personality, Artemis II was “debunked months and months before it even launched” by himself and his fellow flat Earthers. Sargent alleged NASA is using “the same production techniques” as before, “same camera techniques, same… green screen, blue screen stuff, chroma key”, and claimed the footage “hasn’t even really gotten any better since about 2016, 2017 when they were doing ISS refuels”.
The ISS is the International Space Station, a permanently crewed science lab orbiting Earth that regularly receives supply spacecraft (Sargent refers to those resupply operations as “refuels”). Sargent also suggested the timing of Artemis II was driven by “America 250”, marking 250 years since the 1776 Declaration of Independence, arguing it was about “trying to establish a newfound American dominance”.
Clarke Payne echoed Sargent’s sentiments, adding: “Just because it’s NASA, that’s not enough evidence for me.”
Payne runs popular social media pages with thousands of followers and subscribers, in which he shares his criticism of the US government, Israel, and, most recently, Artemis II. He describes himself as “leaning more towards being a flat Earther”.
While Payne’s ideologies are seemingly more moderate than Sargent’s strictly flat-Earth beliefs, the content creator frequently questions the authenticity of our planet’s shape, as well as that of astronauts’ work.
Payne leans on two familiar claims often repeated in flat Earth circles to argue that NASA stages spaceflight. First is the idea that ISS footage is faked using hidden support rigs.
Consequently, Payne pointed to clips where an astronaut’s “hair’s up in the air” and claims someone in the background appears to “come zipping through” wearing a “four-point harness”, which conspiracy theorists suggest is a wire or harness system used on a set or aircraft. Second is the so‑called Devon Island “Mars” theory.
Payne alleged that NASA Mars images match pictures taken on Devon Island in Canada, saying they “laid them overlaid on each other and they laid perfectly together”. Devon Island is known for hosting fieldwork where space agencies test kit out in harsh, Mars-like terrain, but fact-checkers have previously argued many “perfect overlay” examples rely on recycled or edited images rather than proof that Mars photos are shot in Canada.
He also highlighted a couple of long-running online claims about the Van Allen radiation belts, which are zones of charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, and a line from a 2014 NASA Orion video that is often lifted out of context. Referring to a clip featuring NASA engineer Kelly Smith discussing Orion’s early test flights, where she says NASA must “solve these challenges before we send people through this region of space”, Payne emphasised the statement as an admission that the Moon missions weren’t possible.
“I guess the Artemis people, they flew through it or they figured it out,” Payne said. He continued: “I just feel like a lot of the satellites are not as high up as they say and I feel like a lot of things that we see […] I’ve just been left with so many questions that I really really struggle.”
While Payne has been left with more questions than answers, Sargent does have elaborate theories regarding our planet, space, and the world we live in. He said: “You are literally in a sound stage.
“You’re in a Hollywood backlot where everything on the ceiling is just lights. That’s all you’re looking at.”
The famous flat Earther further stated: “I don’t know who built this place, but it wasn’t us.” According to Sargent, the Earth is “a snow globe”.
In his “snow globe” model, the world is a stationary flat disk surrounded by an Antarctic “ice wall”, sealed beneath an indestructible dome (sometimes called the “firmament”) that acts like a “box” or “container”. He also argues the Sun, Moon and stars are not distant worlds millions of miles away, but relatively small lights or projections moving in circles above the Earth within that dome.
Despite coming at it from different angles, both men insist the official space story doesn’t add up. Payne said he still has “so many unanswered questions” and claimed alleged glitches observed in the latest Artemis mission “made me question everything”, adding: “I don’t know what to believe anymore”. Sargent, who has built a career around Flat Earth activism, is steadfast: “All we know is we can’t get out of [snow globe].
“We can’t bust through it”. Sargent concluded: “Flat Earth is the most polarising thing I’ve ever seen.”
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