Claim:
Alyssa Carson, 19 years old, “made history by passing all of NASA’s rigorous tests.”
Judgement:
What is true:
Alyssa Carson is a real person and 23 years old at the time of this writing. She was training to become an astronaut and hopes to participate in a mission to Mars. At the time of this publication, she was working on her Ph.D. in Space and Planetary Sciences from the University of Arkansas, with an expected completion date of May 2028.
What is not true:
As of May 2024, Alyssa had not passed “all of NASA’s rigorous testing,” nor was she officially part of NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Selection Program.
Many social media posts tout Alyssa Carson’s achievements as a young woman: “An impressive 19-year-old astronaut who made history by passing all of NASA’s rigorous tests, with the goal of pioneering human travel to Mars.”
One such after, shared on Facebook on April 27, 2024, compared a black-and-white photo of American fashion model Kendall Jenner (left) with that of Carson (right), with a caption that read in part: “Let’s encourage our daughters to admire qualities like resilience, determination and intellect. Beauty now spans a multitude of dimensions.” As of this publication, the post below received over 2,700 interactions.
The above message is an example of copypasta, a term Snopes previously used characterized as one of the most persistent forms of disinformation on the Internet. Like us before reported“copypasta” is a “portmanteau of ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ (and a wink)” which, as the name suggests, refers to copied and pasted text shared online. Variations of the above post have been shared on other social media platforms including X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn And Instagram.
Some iterations of the claim said she “cannot get married [and] cannot have children,” because “She is preparing to become the first human on Mars and She will never return to Earth.” Reuters And USA today As reported in 2021, such claims are misleading and exaggerate her willingness to serve as a NASA astronaut.
Snopes checked a similar rumor about Carson in 2018, when she was 17 years old. At the time of writing (May 2024) she was 23 years old. While it is true that she has trained to become an astronaut and hopes to participate in a mission on Mars, she has not passed “all of NASA’s rigorous tests” required to do so. She was working on her Ph.D. in Space and Planetary Sciences from the University of Arkansas, with an expected completion date of May 2028.
For these reasons, we have rated this claim as ‘mixture’.
Snopes contacted Carson directly through her Instagram And Facebook accounts to clarify many points in the above statement. She referred our newsroom to her father, Bert Carson, who said there were several factual inaccuracies.
First, the above message is outdated, he said. The above Facebook post states that she is 19 years old. At the time of this publication she was 23.
Furthermore, as of May 2024, she was not officially part of NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Selection Program, which was hosted by the space agency. defines as “individuals who have been selected by NASA as candidates for the NASA Astronaut Corps and are currently undergoing a candidacy training program at the Johnson Space Center.” As for those “air tests”? His father said he didn’t know what the post was referring to.
As of May 2024, he said, she has undergone astronaut training at NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency facilities with a research group of private citizens.
He referred us to her LinkedIn page, which lists her current occupation as a space science researcher and astronaut candidate at the International Institute of Space Sciences (IIAS) in Florida. She is an astrobiologist working on her Ph.D. in Space and Planetary Sciences from the University of Arkansas, with an expected completion date of May 2028.
According to the father, she was first “introduced to the world” by BBC in 2014, when she was 12 years old and sat on a NASA panel to discuss future missions to Mars planned in the 2030s.
“TToday you will see that she has accomplished a lot and built her resume to be one of those chosen to go to Mars,” he told Snopes. “Between training and research, she spends most of her life positioning herself to be a valuable scientist going to Mars.”
According to NASA, in the first half of 2024 alone more than 8,000 people applied to become astronauts. From that pool, between eight and 12 people will become astronaut candidates, which requires two years of training before a candidate is eligible for spaceflight. At the time of writing, the space agency had selected 360 astronaut candidates to fly on space exploration missions since the program’s inception in 1959.
Sources:
“Alyssa Carson, 20, has not been selected for a Mars mission.” ReutersJune 8, 2021. www.reuters.comhttps://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2N2NP20P/.
Astronaut Selection Program – NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/astronauts/astronaut-selection-program/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Astronaut Candidates – NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/astronauts/astronaut-candidates/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Emery, Bond Huberman, David. “Snopestionary: What is copypasta?” SnackingSeptember 19, 2021, https://www.snopes.com//articles/369246/what-is-copypasta/.
Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/selfmadebabes/posts/pfbid02AnoYkfctEkdGTEqCZZEMUGYznY745Hgj92ARJV39n2tkxMRJ9w1iik855tEpxx5yl. Accessed May 24, 2024.
—. https://www.facebook.com/100051454052040/posts/307223484310688/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
—. https://www.facebook.com/100068596622188/posts/1874283262750707/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
—. https://www.facebook.com/100064643561302/posts/4725078577521047/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
—. https://www.facebook.com/nasablueberry/about_contact_and_basic_info. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Finjector.kellie%2F%3Flocale%3Dpl%26hl%3Dar&is_from_rle. Accessed May 24, 2024.
—. https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fnasablueberry%2F&is_from_rle. Accessed May 24, 2024.
“Mars Girl answers questions from the audience.” BBC news. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-29827873. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Sadeghi, McKenzie. “Fact Check: Claim About Alyssa Carson Preparing to Go to Mars Lacks Context.” USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/07/12/fact-check-post-alyssa-carson-mars-preparation-lacks-context/7879648002/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Sandra Fan on LinkedIn: Left: American model Kendall Jenner in a swimsuit shows what… | 185 Comments. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sandrafan_on-the-left-american-model-kendall-jenner-activity-7190242265003352064-8iqd. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Sciences, International Institute of Space Travel. Alyssa Carson – International Institute of Space Sciences. https://astronauticsinstitute.org/members/acarson/. Accessed May 24, 2024.
Staff, Snopes. “Copypasta.” SnackingAugust 21, 2019, https://www.snopes.com//collections/copypasta/.