An image shared on X purports to show National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Thank you Donald Trump and Elon Musk for bringing the astronauts back!
Sunita Williams’ first photo after arriving on earth.#sunitawilliamsreturn #NASA #AstronautsReturn#SunitaWilliams #spaceX pic.twitter.com/2BUocwXb5z

— मारवाड़ी काका (@marwadikaka25) March 19, 2025

Verdict: False

A content detection scan using “Hive Moderation” reveals the image is 99.7% likely to have been generated using artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, an AI expert denied the image’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

Fact Check:

Williams and Wilmore returned to Earth on March 18 in a SpaceX capsule following what was supposed to be a “week-long stay on the International Space Station,” according to Reuters. Williams and Wilmore were in space for nine months along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, NBC News reported.

The X image purports to show Williams and Wilmore with Trump and Musk. “Thank you Donald Trump and Elon Musk for bringing the astronauts back!
Sunita Williams’ first photo after arriving on earth,” the image’s caption reads. In the image, Williams and Wilmore, who both appear to be wearing space suits, pose with Trump and Musk for a photo.

The claim is false. Check Your Fact conducted a content detection scan using the website “Hive Moderation,” and the results show the image is 99.7% likely to be AI-generated. According to the results of the same scan, the image was probably created using the program “Stable Diffusion.”

Likewise, Check Your Fact did not find the image referenced on Trump’s personal or government X accounts, his TRUTH Social account, or his verified social media accounts. Musk has not shared the image via his verified X account @elonmusk. NASA has not published the image via its website or verified social media accounts, either. (RELATED: No, Warren Buffett Did Not Say ‘Trump Is Making The Best Financial Decisions In 50 Years’)

In addition, Check Your Fact did not find the image referenced in any recent credible news reports. Actually, the opposite is true. Both NewsMeter and Newschecker debunked the claim, indicating it is AI-generated.

Furthermore, Dr. Walter Scheirer, an AI expert at the University of Notre Dame, denied the image’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

“This image is the product of a generative AI algorithm. There are two obvious pieces of evidence for this. First, the spacesuits the astronauts are wearing do not match the suits they are wearing in published photos from major news outlets. Second, there is a Grok watermark in the lower-right of the image. Grok is a popular generative AI tool from the company xAI,” Scheirer said.