A 'sex magic ritual'? No, NASA rockets are to study atmosphere during eclipse | Fact check

Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
Updated ·3 min read

The claim: Three rockets being launched by NASA during eclipse are part of 'sex magic ritual'

A March 28 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) claims something is amiss about a government agency's plan to launch rockets during the upcoming eclipse.

"Sending a rocket to the moon is really just like a large-scale sex magic ritual," the woman says. "A rocket is just like a giant obelisk. The moon is the feminine aspect, so the obelisk to the moon – or a rocket to the moon – is a sex magic ritual."

A portion of the caption reads, "So is this ritual, and all its synchronicities, a ritual causing mass psychosis?"

The video was liked more than 3,000 times in a week.

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Our rating: False

The NASA rockets scheduled for April 8 will be used to study the eclipse's effect on the upper atmosphere, as they were during a past eclipse. There is no evidence the rockets are tied to any ritual – sexual, magical or otherwise.

Scientists will use rockets to study Earth's atmosphere during eclipse

NASA is planning to launch three rockets during the total solar eclipse that will cross the U.S. on the afternoon of April 8, taking a narrow path across 13 states from Texas to Maine. There is no evidence, though, that the rockets will be part of a "sex magic ritual" or lead to "mass psychosis," as the Instagram video claims.

For starters, the Instagram video describes a "rocket to the moon," but these rockets are expected to reach a maximum altitude of about 260 miles. The moon, on average, is about 238,000 miles from Earth.

And the purpose of the rockets is clearly laid out by NASA.

NASA says it will use three sounding rockets to study what happens in the upper atmosphere when sunlight briefly dims over a part of the planet. The rockets will be fired from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at three different times: 45 minutes before, during and 45 minutes after the eclipse peaks locally.

"These intervals are important to collect data on how the sun's sudden disappearance affects the ionosphere, creating disturbances that have the potential to interfere with our communications," the space agency's website says.

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The ionosphere is part of the atmosphere that sits at the edge of space, roughly 50 to 400 miles above the Earth's surface. It reflects and refracts radio signals, and it also affects satellite communications, Aroh Barjatya, the mission's leader and a physicist at Florida's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said in a news release.

“Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly," Barjatya said.

NASA launched the same rockets during a solar eclipse in October 2023. As a result, scientists observed a "sharp reduction in the density of charged particles" as the eclipse passed over the atmosphere.

“We saw the perturbations capable of affecting radio communications in the second and third rockets, but not during the first rocket that was before peak local eclipse," Barjatya explained.

NASA plans to livestream the upcoming launch on its YouTube page, and it will also let people watch in person from the facility's visitor center.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA to use rockets to study eclipse effect on atmosphere | Fact check