A Reddit moderator landed themselves in hot water after a photo from an astronaut was removed for being too “blurry.” Seriously.
When it comes to posting on Reddit, pretty much everyone can get involved. Athletes have admitted to having burners on there so they can see what fans are saying about them, while other celebrities will openly use their own name to communicate with fans.
In the case of NASA’s Don Pettit, the astronaut has regularly taken to Reddit to share some of the photos he’s taken while on the International Space Station from over the last few years.
That included one where he snapped a plane flying miles below the ISS. Pettit, who is the oldest active astronaut with NASA, took the photo back in 2024, but posted it on the r/Aviation subreddit on February 1, 2026.
r/Aviation mod apologizes after NASA astronaut’s photo removed
However, one moderator within the community decided to delete it. Their reasoning? His literal out-of-this-world photo was too “blurry”. This is a rule for most subreddits, as they wipe away “low effort” posts, but removing Pettit’s photo sparked backlash from posters, urging the mods to reinstate the post.
“We brought some new people onto the mod team, and unfortunately there are some learning curves. I caught the issue and fixed it. Thanks to everyone who let me know that this happened,” another moderator, Flying_Wrenches, said.
“I’ll speak to the guy who made the mistake and hopefully this won’t happen again. Quality ain’t bad when you consider the pic is 250-Ish miles away.”
Some Redditors urged the r/Aviation team to remove the moderator who had cut down Pettit’s post initially. “That mod should not be a mod anymore. Horribly poor judgement,” one said. “I think it’s going to be awhile before that mod peeks over the parapet again LOL,” another added. “Overzealous Reddit mods? Shocking,” another another.
A number of Reddit moderators have come under fire in the last few months. The r/Art subreddit was locked by one mod after an artist posted about selling their own prints. That forced Reddit staff to step in.
Rapper A$AP Rocky also hit out at moderators on the HipHopHeads subreddit for deleting his posts as he was advertising his new album – Don’t Be Dumb.
