An old video of Sunita Williams giving a space station tour is being shared as a recent incident
On 6 June 2024, Sunita Williams, and Wilmore successfully docked the Boeing Starliner with the International Space Station (ISS) for a 10-day mission (here and here). Against this background, a video showing Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams giving a space station tour is being shared on social media (here, here, and here) claiming that “After successful 127 days of Space Tour, Ms. Sunita Williams is returning safely to Earth.” Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Sunita Williams will return to Earth after 127 days. This video features her guided tour of the International Space Station in 2024.
Fact: The viral video dates back to November 2012. Sunita Williams has been aboard the ISS with fellow astronaut Barry Wilmore since June 2024. Their initial 10-day mission has been extended until February 2025 due to technical problems with the Boeing Starliner test flight. As a result, their current expedition is expected to last 240 days. However, the viral video is not related to her current mission 2024. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon performing a reverse image search using the keyframes of the viral video, we found the same video that NASA published on its official YouTube channel on 20 November 2012. The description of the video reads as “In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked the video on 18 November 2012 just hours before she, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency departed in their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan. The tour includes scenes of each of the station’s modules and research facilities with a running narrative by Williams of the work that has taken place and which is ongoing aboard the orbital outpost.”
A relevant keyword search regarding Sunita Williams’ recent space mission in 2024 shows that since 6 June 2024, she has been aboard the International Space Station with Barry Wilmore. Their original 10-day mission has been extended until February 2025 due to issues with the Boeing Starliner test flight. They are now anticipated to remain in space for 240 days and will return in 2025 on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, along with two other crew members (here, here, and here).
Sunita Williams’ recent (2024) live tour video from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft can be seen here and here.
To sum up, an old 2012 video of Sunita Williams giving a space station tour is being shared as a recent incident.