Featured Image Credit: China Manned Space Agency
China's Tiangong Space Station has become the subject of a new conspiracy theory, as people on social media become convinced that new footage is fake after noticing one suspicious detail.
If there's one thing that almost everyone knows about living in space, it’s the wild effects of microgravity, as people and objects alike float through the air as if they were completely weightless.
It's what caused President Trump to comment on one astronaut's 'wild' hair, and it's also why anyone who spends time in space has to undergo extreme physical rehab, as your body has to work far less.
However, space conspiracy theorists on social media believe they've spotted 'proof' that China is faking its space missions - and it's all thanks to one detail that they have likely misunderstood.
Shared by @BGatesIsaPsycho on X, they point out that the strange nature of a glass of water during footage captured on board the Tiangong Space Station, as reported by the Daily Mail.
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"Call me crazy but if I was orbiting the Earth at 17,500mph in Zero Gravity surrounded complex computers...... I probably wouldn't risk an unconcealed glass of water resting on the table. Apparently it's strapped down with velcro," the user wrote.
Call me crazy but if I was orbiting the Earth at 17,500mph in Zero Gravity surrounded complex computers…..
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) June 15, 2025
I probably wouldn’t risk an unconcealed glass of water resting on the table. Apparently it’s strapped down with velcro.
Please take all the time you need. pic.twitter.com/gLGEEcNSkX
Watching the short clip you can clearly see that the water in the glass is barely moving, despite many expecting it to be floating up in the air in an uncontrollable manner much like the astronauts themselves.
"Why isn't the water floating out of the glass?" Questioned another in the replies, with others arguing that this proves that the footage is 'fake' and created by using a green screen.
The actual answer is far more simple, and does indeed clarify why water would (and is, in the case of this footage) behaving like that in the microgravity of space.
— Matt (@MatthewPhone) June 15, 2025
Jordan Bimm, postdoctoral researcher and space historian at the University of Chiago, explained in an interview with AP: "Water molecules like to stick to glass and also to other water molecules more than they like to disperse in the air.
"So if there is no external force, water remains in 'clumps' in the weightless environment, and in this case inside the glass."
Much like the palaver surrounding Katy Perry's hair earlier this year, gravity interacts contrastingly with different objects, and in this case, it's actually normal and expected for water to remain inside a glass - and some experiments show quite how difficult it is to actually get it out.Hilariously, the full footage that the aforementioned X user pulls this short clip from disproves their conspiracy, as the Chinese astronauts place a ball inside the water and move it around, showing exactly what Bimm explained in action.
