Bob Lazar

Bob Lazar came to public attention in 1989 when he claimed in a television interview with George Knapp on KLAS-TV in Las Vegas that he had worked at a facility called S-4, south of Area 51 at Groom Lake, Nevada, where he said the U.S. government was reverse-engineering extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Lazar described the propulsion system of the craft as utilising Element 115 (later synthesised and named moscovium in 2003) to generate a gravitational field. He claimed to have been hired as a physicist to study one of nine craft allegedly housed at the facility.

Verification of Lazar's background has proved contentious. He claimed degrees from the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but neither institution has confirmed his enrolment. His supporters point to evidence of his name appearing in a Los Alamos National Laboratory phone directory and a newspaper article identifying him as a Los Alamos employee. The laboratory has stated it has no employment records for him.

Lazar's claims have been the subject of a 2018 documentary by Jeremy Corbell. He has maintained his account consistently over three decades without significant alteration. The case remains deeply polarising: supporters regard it as the most specific insider testimony about a reverse-engineering programme, while critics argue that the unverifiable educational claims undermine the entire account.