Social Media Andrew Bridgen Artemis conspiracy theories

Andrew Bridgen thought he’d unveiled a conspiracy about two Earthrise images, but it was just the same picture twice – 17 hilariously brutal takedowns

Oonagh Keating. Updated April 9th, 2026

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Former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who was suspended from the party for his Covid conspiracy theories before losing his seat at the last election, is (clearly) not on speaking terms with science.

Here’s an image he shared in 2023, before being mocked into oblivion for obvious reasons.

A 1950s-style painting of a smiling blonde girl. Text Do you remember when we treated viruses with soup, vitamin c and plenty of rest instead of communism?

He’s not a huge fan of fact-checking, either, resulting in embarrassing moments like this.

And he’s no stranger to a Community Note, largely because of a combination of the previous two points.

We mention these things because – well – he’s been at it again.

As the crew of Artemis II carry out their final checks before returing to Earth, Bridgen thought he’d spotted a Nasa conspiracy in the wild.

It’s a remarkable coincidence that the Earth was exactly the same orientation to the moon with exactly the same cloud coverage when these two pictures were taken 68 years apart. Am I now a coincidence theorist ?

These were the images in question.

The famous 1969 Earthrise image shot from Apollo 11, labelled Apollo 8, December 24 1968 on the left, and zoomed in a little more on the right, with the label Artemis II, April 6 2026

They’re quite obviously the same image, no matter what’s written on them. Bridgen probably believes that Einstein said “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” because he saw it on a poster.

Inevitably, a Community Note happened. Again.

The photo on the right is a magnification of the photo on the left. These are not the photos from the 2026 Artemis 2 mission.

That wasn’t all the only consequence. The internet went into full piss-take mode, and these captured the tone perfectly.

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