Fact Check: Post claiming Tamil Nadu students built world’s smallest satellite is not recent, claim is misleading
Vishvas News in its investigation found that the viral post claiming Chennai students launched the world’s smallest satellite is old, not recent. The post is misleading.
- By: Ankita Deshkar
- Published: Mar 25, 2022 at 02:13 PM
Vishvas News (New Delhi): Vishvas News came across a post on Facebook, which claimed that students from Tamil Nadu built the world’s smallest satellite and launched it through NASA recently. The post also claimed that the media is busy covering The Kashmir Files movie and hence is not showing the truth.
Vishvas News in its investigation found that the claim and the image is old. The Chennai students had built the world’s smallest satellite in 2017. This incident is not recent.
Claim:
Facebook user Mubeen Vaskar shared a post on Facebook group धर्म मराठी ( DHARM – marathi ) on 24th March. The post had a picture attributed to ANI. The user claimed: भारत ने कल इतिहास रच दिया जब तमिलनाडु की 18 वर्षीय विद्यार्थी रिफात फारुक द्वारा तैयार किए गए दुनिया के सबसे छोटे सैटलाइट को ‘NASA’ ने लांच किया.
भूतपूर्व राष्ट्रपति कलाम साहब को सम्मान देते हुए इस सैटेलाइट का नाम ‘Kalamsat’ रखा गया है. इसका वजन सिर्फ 64 ग्राम है.
लेकिन भारत की गोदी मीडिया ‘कश्मीर फाइल’ खेलने में व्यस्त है.
English Translation: India created history today after Tamil Nadu’s 18 year old student Rifaat Farooq created the world’s smallest satellite, which was launched by NASA. This satellite has been named ‘Kalamsat’ after the former President of India. The weight of the satellite is just 64 grams. However, Godi media is busy showing Kashmir Files.
Check the post and its archive version here.
Investigation:
Vishvas News started the fact check with a simple Google Reverse Image search.
We found the image shared in the post on the official Twitter handle of ANI.
The post said: Chennai: Students who built the world’s smallest satellite, rejoice after its launch. The satellite weighing 64 grams was launched by NASA.
There were three pictures in this post and the post was done on June 22, 2017.
On doing the keyword search we also found this news on various media websites.
A report on The Indian Express titled, ‘NASA launches world’s smallest satellite designed by 18-year old Tamil Nadu student’ said, “India, on Thursday, created history after NASA launched the world’s smallest satellite, built by 18-year old Tamil Nadu student Rifath Sharook and his team. Named as Kalamsat, after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the tiny satellite weighs around 64 grams.”
The news article was dated June 23, 2017.
Read the story here.
india.com too had carried the news on June 22, 2017.
Vishvas News in the next step of investigation reached out to Chennai’s ANI correspondent Ronald Jabaraj. He said, “I was the one who reported the news of Kalamsat in June 2017. This news is not recent. I had also conducted the interview with Rifath Sharook.”
In the last step of investigation Vishvas News did a social background check of the Facebook user who had shared the viral post. Mubeen Vaskar is a resident of Roha, Maharashtra.
Conclusion: Vishvas News in its investigation found that the viral post claiming Chennai students launched the world’s smallest satellite is old, not recent. The post is misleading.
- Claim Review : भारत ने कल इतिहास रच दिया जब तमिलनाडु की 18 वर्षीय विद्यार्थी रिफात फारुक द्वारा तैयार किए गए दुनिया के सबसे छोटे सैटलाइट को 'NASA' ने लांच किया. भूतपूर्व राष्ट्रपति कलाम साहब को सम्मान देते हुए इस सैटेलाइट का नाम 'Kalamsat' रखा गया है. इसका वजन सिर्फ 64 ग्राम है. लेकिन भारत की गोदी मीडिया 'कश्मीर फाइल' खेलने में व्यस्त है.
- Claimed By : Mubeen Vaskar
- Fact Check : Misleading
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