Artemis II Is 'Fake' Theory Explained: Flat Earthers Claim NASA Moon Mission Is '100% Theatre'

Before going to sleep on flight day 5, the Artemis II crew snapped one more photo of the Moon, as it drew close in the window of the Orion spacecraft. (Credit: NASA Website)

Artemis II, NASA's first crewed mission around the Moon in more than half a century, is nearing its planned Pacific Ocean splashdown on Friday after a record‑breaking 252,756‑mile flight, yet prominent flat Earth activists are insisting the entire mission is '100% theatre' and that the spacecraft never left the stage.

Artemis II is the second step in NASA's Artemis programme and the first to carry humans since Apollo 17 in 1972. The four‑astronaut crew has spent 10 days in space testing systems for future Moon landings and, according to NASA, has now surpassed the distance record held by Apollo 13 since 1970. The agency has framed the mission as a proof‑of‑concept for a new era of deep‑space exploration.