Saucers, Space & Science

History

Gene Duplantier published Saucers, Space & Science from Willowdale, Ontario (a Toronto suburb), beginning in 1957 and running through 20 issues to 1961. The publication bridged two worlds that seemed inseparable in the late 1950s: the flying saucer mystery and the emerging space age. Sputnik launched in October 1957, the same year Duplantier began publishing, and the magazine tracked both phenomena as expressions of a single question about what occupied the skies above.

The content combined Canadian and international sighting reports with articles on satellites, space science, and the technical aspects of astronautics. Duplantier covered the Galt, Ontario saucer sighting in detail, reported Sputnik III observations over Canadian and American territory, and analysed individual cases with attention to physical characteristics (shape, luminosity, manoeuvre patterns). The quarterly publication schedule meant each issue could assess developments across three months of activity rather than chasing individual stories.

The magazine reflected Duplantier's particular interest in the physical science of the phenomenon. Where contactee publications of the same era focused on messages and philosophy, Saucers, Space & Science asked engineering questions: what propulsion systems could produce the observed flight characteristics? How did reported electromagnetic effects correlate with proximity? What could satellite tracking teach us about distinguishing artificial from anomalous objects? This technical orientation placed the publication in the same intellectual tradition as Keyhoe and NICAP rather than the Adamski school.