A renowned publication, “Epoch Times,” seems to be giving some serious credit to Chinese bloggers who watched closely and thoroughly the footage that showed the Shenzhou VII crew's mission and Zhai Zhigang's walk in space. Perhaps too thoroughly, since they came up with all sorts of mismatches and oddities that would clearly prove, they say, that the whole event was a fake.

 

Following the exact pattern of questioning the American moon mission of Apollo 11, which was discredited to the maximum, some Chinese see – or maybe they think they see, this is for you to decide – stuff that might prove that their astronauts didn't get any closer to the moon than we did. As evidence to their theory, they indicate that the movement of the astronaut looked exactly like underwater motion, only sped up a bit. Then, there were some tiny bubbles (which might have been space debris, if we choose to believe the official story) coming out of the hatch at some point, or others that stuck on Zhigang's helmet a while later. The mission's commander can be heard at some point saying “Number one, Number two, Tied it in water. Operation is normal,” which is a pretty hard piece of evidence for the unbelievers. “Number one” and “number two” refer to two of the mission's astronauts, Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming, and not to... what one may otherwise think.

 

Another clue was provided by the distinct reflection of 3 rows of light sources in the mirrors on the astronaut's wrist and, later on, in his watch, which proves their fixed location. There's also an unidentified light source that consistently and repeatedly shines on Zhigang's lower body. However, another source of light that should have been there is notably absent – the stars - there is none in the background. Speaking of fixed position, as the spacecraft moves (proved by its remaining completely static for the duration of the transmission), the background image of Earth doesn't change its place at all, which should happen visibly in relation to a moving camera. The astronaut didn't let go of the spacecraft's lever at any time, which makes bloggers (of which none was named by “Epoch Times”) to believe that his movement may not have seemed credible otherwise, as perhaps he would've sunk to the bottom of the tank where the footage was filmed.

 

Comparisons with the previous missions point out that this video is much better in terms of quality, lacking “noise,” as the Shenzhou VII moved, unlike the Russian or American spacecrafts. Also, Zhigang didn't let go of the craft, like the previous astronauts did while performing short walks or floating for a short while. For the final piece of evidence, the theory points to the way the communist flag waved by Zhai Zhigang moved, which was much too lively given the low gravity. Professor Yen-Hsyang Chu from Taiwan’s National Central University (the only name actually specified by the publication) claimed in an interview that “Without resistance force, when you wave a flag, the flag will move with your hands. However, it is unlikely for the flag to move like it is pushed by waves or winds.”

 

The conclusion of this skeptical analysis resumed with the reason of this faking. As political analysts show, the space mission was moved to an earlier date than previously scheduled (which, let's face it, doesn't really happen that often, instead we get quite a lot of the opposite), in order to divert public attention from the growing media scandal of the lethal melamine-contaminated milk. Again, no name of any analyst or publication where the statement was made was provided. Perhaps this is another one of those things that everybody is free to believe or not. Maybe you should watch the video again and form your own opinion.