History was being remade as Blue Origin’s rocket, carrying an all-female crew that included journalist Lauren Sánchez and music sensation Katy Perry, took off on April 14. It was the first all-female space crew since the famous trip of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.
Conspiracy theorists, however, were pounding away at their keyboards as the rest of the world rejoiced, and they believe they have finally solved the case: Blue Origin fabricated it. What’s their smoking gun? Inside the container, a suspiciously shiny hand was observed. The Great Mystery of the Mannequin: Is a Hand Too Perfect? A seemingly harmless image of a person sitting in a Blue Origin capsule wearing a blue jumpsuit set off a viral firestorm.
Something is definitely wrong with the Blue Origin “Space Flight”… that Katy Perry was on
Social media users are asking, where are the re-entry burn marks? And why does that look like a fake hand?
lol this world is so crazy https://t.co/8r800Rlmwt pic.twitter.com/Tw7mSfKfDo
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) April 16, 2025
The photograph, which shows what seems to be an excessively smooth, uncannily plastic-looking hand, was shared on Twitter. “That appears to be a mannequin. One user raised doubts by asking, “Wouldn’t this capsule be burned returning through the atmosphere if it just came from space?”
Another person added, “Where are the burn marks from re-entry? Why does it appear to be a phony hand? This world is so insane, lol. It was obvious that the spacecraft was a planned photo opportunity, complete with missing burn scars and artificial limbs.
As it turns out, the hand is indeed fake—but not for the reasons fueling the latest round of spaceflight skepticism. The viral image isn’t from this month’s historic flight at all. It’s from a completely different Blue Origin mission, launched eight years ago.
In December 2017, the company sent up its New Shepard Crew Capsule on a test flight, complete with a humanoid dummy named—fittingly—Mannequin Skywalker. The hand in question? Photos and footage of Mannequin Skywalker were widely circulated back then, and have since resurfaced, stripped of context and repackaged as “evidence” against Blue Origin’s latest milestone.
This whole thing was a scam and fake. The ship hammered into the ground and these privileged woman came out with no helmets full hair and make up.
AND they want to be referred to as crew and or astronauts 🤣 #getfucked pic.twitter.com/83ed6tc0Xl
— IMARoostàr🐓 (@IMAROOSTAR) April 17, 2025
This most recent error is a part of a larger pattern in internet-age skepticism, when meme-fueled conspiracies and social media cynicism instantly follow historic advances. This type of scrutiny has been and will continue to be directed at Blue Origin, particularly when a pop culture icon like Katy Perry is involved, making the mission a scientific and cultural event.
Conspiracy theorists may have made a bigger mistake with their mannequin mix-up than Bezos, who may have fallen to the ground in West Texas dust following the launch. However, history demonstrates that a strong conspiracy theory may flourish despite any burn marks, or lack thereof.
