Rick Mastracchio is a NASA veteran who has flown three space shuttle missions (Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery) and also served as a flight engineer for the Russian Soyuz mission aboard the International Space Station.
But apparently on Twitter, that doesn’t matter.
Last night Mastracchio tweeted out this spellbinding photo of the moon passing by the Earth, as seen from a NASA observatory in deep space:
The moon passed between @NASA climate observatory and the earth. Almost unbelievable that this is a real photo pic.twitter.com/MWxwgDfUIw
— Rick Mastracchio (@AstroRM) July 26, 2016
Rather than simply marveling at the majesty, however, many users tried to convince Mastracchio that the image was a fake, even claiming that NASA’s original 1969 moon landing had been Photoshopped (never mind that Photoshop didn’t exist until 1988):
https://twitter.com/SDComps/status/757770183129894912
what a shit photoshop, stop trying to hide the Earth being flat@AstroRM @Doomchild_ @NASA pic.twitter.com/ERtZqBjDRA
— pissblood (@orphandroid) July 26, 2016
@RearAdBsBlog @NASA that's no moon. That's a space station.
— Bruins Fool (@BruinsFool) July 26, 2016
https://twitter.com/isaacgarcia/status/757787646823280640
https://twitter.com/GwedeUncle/status/757805407721000963
https://twitter.com/somewhat_awake/status/757866563647131648
https://twitter.com/MikeESchmee/status/757766239439691777
https://twitter.com/greenjohn1373/status/757852058196193280
https://twitter.com/jimishbathia/status/757934546230927366
One brave soul defended the photo’s interstellar artistry:
it doesn't look real… and that the best part of it
— Jon D.🇺🇦 (@JDSportsfan85) July 26, 2016
To his credit, Mastracchio didn’t respond to any of the trolls. But he learned the hard way that this is what happens when you engage on a social network where users tell Pope Francis to read the Bible.
