Millions Fell For Fake Facebook Live Of Astronauts In Space And NASA's Laughing

Facebook users were punk'd on Wednesday when a live stream of an apparent space expedition was proven to be fake.

The out-of-this-world footage was aired on Facebook Live, and was shared by multiple media outlets, including Viral USA and UNILAD.

Users were so stoked about the fake video clip that it racked up millions of views, shares and likes, according to DailyMail.com.

The video shows astronauts lunging from the International Space Station into outer space, but the footage looked all too familiar.

Apparently, Mashable suspected the video was using footage from the 2013 ISS Expedition 38 with Russian astronauts Oleg Kotov & Sergei Ryazansky.

NASA confirmed with the site the "live" footage was indeed false, and there was no spacewalk outside of the ISS yesterday.

Bummer, I know.

Before the live footage was proven to be fraudulent, people grew suspicious because NASA never announced the spacewalk that was going viral on the web.

I mean, space exploration is kind of a big deal. I think NASA would be incredibly excited to share that kind of news, but I'm no expert.

For example, back in June the International Space Station announced a space expedition one month before Mark Zuckerberg  live-streamed the entire thing on Facebook.

I wonder if Mark knew about yesterday's space prank...

He probably did, and he's probably laughing at everyone who fell for it, just like NASA.

It's also been reported no astronauts have embarked on a spacewalk outside of the ISS since September 1.

If I watched, shared and liked the fake live stream, I would feel pretty freakin' dumb right now.

But a lot of people did -- over 2 million, to be exact.

I think the lesson here is to always check NASA's official social media platforms before viewing an alleged live stream of a space expedition.

And really, even though this footage wasn't actually live, it was still cool AF to watch.

Citations: Mashable, DailyMail.com