Now Blue Origin conspiracy theorists claim Katy Perry’s hair proves flight was ‘FAKED’… and what about Gayle King’s ‘disappearing hand’?
Ever since Katy Perry and Gayle King took their 11-minute trip to the edge of space, the internet has been ablaze with wild theories.
According to internet-dwelling conspiracy theorists, the all-female crew’s journey on Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin rocket was all an elaborate hoax.
Now, social media users have latched on to yet another bizarre detail as ‘proof’ that the crew never really went to space.
On X, formerly Twitter, commenters have claimed that Katy Perry’s hair didn’t float like it should have if she really was in microgravity.
In particular, conspiracy theorists have latched onto the fact that NASA astronaut Suni Williams’ hair stuck up at wild angles during her time on the International Space Station (ISS).
One sceptical commenter complained: ‘The real astronaut lady that Space X saved had her hair all raised. This is so fake.’
But that wasn’t the only detail of the Blue Origin mission which online commenters have struggled to understand.
A strange video apparently showing Gayle King’s hand disappearing has once again sparked rumours that the mission was created by ‘CGI’.
After being forced to remain on the ISS for almost 10 months by the failure of the Boeing Starliner capsule, Suni Williams became one of the most recognisable American astronauts.
Williams’ permanently vertical hairstyle even caught the attention of President Donald Trump who dubbed her the ‘woman with the wild hair’.
However, many social media users have pointed out that the crew of the Blue Origin mission NS-31 didn’t react the same way during their few minutes of freefall earlier this week.
On X, one commenter wrote: ‘Watch their hair. Then look at Sumi’s [sic] while in space. This is all fake.’
Another confused social media user added: ‘I have long hair… And when I’m underwater my hair just flows and sways and goes with the emotions in the water… You see none of that in these fake space photos.’
While one commenter complained: ‘Why Katy Perry and the other females not tie their hair before leaving? Why it seems like a fake stunt to me?’
Of course, this ignores the obvious explanation that Katy Perry and the other members of the crew had their hair styled on the ground before leaving.
Suni Williams, on the other hand, was on the ISS for months without access to a shower so it’s unsurprising that her hair looked different to that of a celebrity.
But that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists looking elsewhere for evidence to support their bogus claims.
In a video posted to TikTok, one user claimed that CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King’s hand disappears during the footage of the crew enjoying weightlessness.
In the video’s caption, the user writes: ‘It’s not real it’s fake Don’t believe me find the original video download yourself and super speed it down. what’s going on what are the distracting us from? I have goosebumps ‘
In the comments, users flocked to express their support for the claim with one writing: ‘I think you’ve done a great job uploading this and trying ur best to show everyone what they can’t see, if anyone can’t comprehend they will find it elsewhere no need to apologize for the eye opener.’
However, this video’s claim is incredibly easy to debunk with any level of fact-checking.
Watching the original video posted by Blue Origin at low speed reveals no distortion of Gayle King’s hand whatsoever.
The supposed ‘proof’ in this clip has either been added with editing or are artefacts introduced by the video being lifted from another site, as indicated by the layers of brand logos in the bottom-right corner.
This comes after over-excited conspiracy theorists spread false claims about a supposedly ‘fake’ hand they had spotted in the window of the New Shepard capsule.
On X, one commenter claimed: ‘Something is definitely wrong with the Blue Origin “Space Flight” that Katy Perry was on.’
While these commenters were correct that this was a manequins hand, they had simply mistaken a seven year old photograph for images of Monday’s launch.
Instead, this is from the test flight of New Shepard Crew Capsule 2.0 which took place on December 12, 2017.
The flight included a mannequin which had been jokingly nicknamed Mannequin Skywalker, the hand of which can be seen in the viral image.
In reality, at 14:30 BST (08:30 local time), the NS-31 mission launched from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, about 30 miles north of Van Horn, Texas.
On board were Jeff Bezos’ fiancé Lauren Sánchez, pop star Katy Perry, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, activist Amanda Nguyen and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe.
After lift-off, the New Shepard rocket carried the crew capsule just over the Karman Line, a boundary used to define the edge of space.
After enjoying a few minutes of weightlessness, the capsule fell back to Earth and landed safely just 11 minutes after lift-off.
