A GLAMOROUS Instagram star who soared to fame by claiming she was an astronaut has been exposed as a fraud by NASA.
Laysa Peixoto, known to her 156,000 followers as @AstroLaysa, announced earlier this month she’d been picked for a career in space exploration.
The 22-year-old Brazilian claimed she earned a spot in the coveted “Astronaut Class of 2025” with plans to fly to the Moon and Mars.
Just a few days after her exciting Instagram announcement – featuring photos of her dressed in a NASA-branded jumpsuit and helmet – NASA stepped in with a sobering reality check.
The agency said bluntly in a statement: “This individual is not a NASA employee, principal investigator, or astronaut candidate.
“It would be inappropriate to claim NASA affiliation as part of this opportunity.”
Peixoto, hailing from Minas Gerais, claimed to her followers that she had been selected by the private space company Titans Space for a 2029 mission, directed by veteran NASA astronaut Bill McArthur.
She expressed her excitement in a June 5th post: “It hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but I feel immense gratitude for the entire journey I’ve taken so far and for everyone who has been and is a part of it.”
She added: “It is a great joy to represent Brazil as an astronaut in such a decisive era of space exploration… It is an honour to carry the Brazilian flag with me as the first Brazilian woman to cross this frontier.”
But NASA’s no-nonsense response made it clear she had never trained with them and had only participated in a student workshop called L’SPACE – which it described as neither a job nor an internship.
Titans Space added to the confusion, confirming she had been accepted into a “candidate programme” – a far cry from a guaranteed seat on a rocket.
The company reportedly doesn’t even hold a license to conduct manned spaceflights.
The programme Peixoto apparently joined is a $1million “Inaugural Astronauts” package promising a five-hour space trip and just three hours of zero gravity.
Questions around Peixoto’s education also started brewing.
She had claimed to be earning a master’s in Quantum Physics and Computing at Columbia University in New York City.
But the Ivy League school told Brazilian outlet Metropoles there’s no record of her.
Meanwhile, her former university in Brazil confirmed she was dismissed in 2023 for failing to re-enrol.
In a press release statement acquired by Brazilian outlet O Tempo, Peixoto’s team attempted to address any misunderstandings her Instagram may have caused.
Her publicist said in a press release: “In the announcement made on Instagram, the only statement given so far (June 11), having not checked any interview so far, Laysa explains that she was selected as an astronaut by the private company Titans Space
“At no time is there a mention of NASA, or that it would be an astronaut from the agency. The post was never edited.”
According to the press release, Peixoto also has no direct affiliation with NASA.
“It’s explicit and clear: Laysa was selected to become a career astronaut by Titans Space, which will have as mission commander, Bill McArthur, a veteran NASA astronaut – the only mention made about NASA in the post.”
But eagled-eyed internet sleuths say otherwise – noting the post was edited and included photos heavy with NASA iconography.
The bizarre saga saw the “fake astronaut” at the center of social media jokes.
One user quipped on X: “All I have to say is that anyone who saw a girl wearing a space camp jumpsuit claiming to be a lead astronaut researcher deserves to be fooled, when she’s clearly just an ambitious and wealthy person.”
