By: Arron Williams
February 17 2023
False: Satellites don't exist and the Earth is flat.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
Substantial evidence shows that satellites do exist. The belief satellites are fake stems from the debunked Flat Earth theory.
Claim ID cdc2bda6
Context
A post on Facebook claims that satellites are a hoax, stating that data is actually transported by radio towers and submarine cables. The post also claims that the Earth is flat, and the belief that satellites aren't real is common within the Flat Earth theory. The post uses the claim about satellites to suggest that the Earth is flat, although the video itself does not give wider context about the claims. However, the belief that satellites are a hoax and footage from satellites is faked is common within Flat Earth Theory and used to claim that NASA is covering up the truth that the Earth is flat. This further coincides with the Flat Earth belief that the world is a level plane and that space doesn't exist. These claims are unsubstantiated and not supported by scientific evidence.
In Fact
Satellites are real, and there is substantial evidence to show they exist. However, it is true that data and information also rely on transportation via radio towers and submarine cables.
Man-made satellites have existed for decades. As described in a NASA article updated in 2017, the Soviet Union developed the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, which was successfully launched and entered Earth's orbit in 1957.
Further evidence that artificial satellites exist comes from the fact that images taken by satellites are widely available. For example, The NASA Earth Observatory has a variety of articles and detailed discussions about different photographs taken by satellites. Similarly, NASA's website has a variety of information covering satellites, from satellite news to videos of satellite launches.
Beyond NASA, other institutions and companies have also launched satellites and possess satellite data. For example, SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk, launched 52 satellites into orbit on September 24, 2022. A video on SpaceX's website shows footage of the satellite launch. There is definitive proof that artificial man-made satellites exist and are in Earth's orbit.
While it is true that data is transmitted by radio towers and via submarine cables, it is also true that satellites are used for these purposes. As mentioned by Encylopedia Britannica, this includes telecommunications, broadcasting, and data communications. The main advantage of satellites is that they don't require massive investments on the ground and can distribute signals from one point to many different locations. Satellites are also important to the internet as a significant amount of internet traffic goes through satellites. In a 2022 Business Insider article, experts said submarine cables and satellites are not mutually exclusive and are highly complementary. The main advantage of satellites is that they can target under-served regions. However, both undersea cables and satellites will continue to be used to provide these services.
The Earth is not flat, and scientific evidence has repeatedly debunked the Flat Earth Theory. Logically has previously fact-checked a number of Flat Earth claims and found them to be false. These fact-checks are available through the fact-checking library.
The Verdict
There is extensive evidence that satellites exist and the Earth is not flat. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.