Bob Lazar

Bob Lazar’s fame rests on his claim since 1989 that he worked on a secret government plan to “reverse engineer” captured alien spacecraft in the Nevada desert.

Lazar said he worked near Groom Lake at “Site 4” within Area 51, and that’s pretty much how Area 51 became known as the center of UFO stories that involve government conspiracies (and perhaps the most famous secret place in the world).

His story first came to light in 1989, when he went on the air with reporter George Knapp, first as “Dennis” — revealing his real name shortly after that and telling more of his work as a physicist trying to “reverse engineer” 9 alien spacecraft held in secret.

An absence of hard evidence of spacecraft and an absence of proof of his credentials as a scientist have caused skeptics to dismiss Lazar’s story. Those same things have caused believers to embrace Lazar’s story as true — because a lack of evidence “proves” a government cover-up.

Since going public, Bob Lazar has been a top celebrity on the circuit of UFO (now UAP, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) conferences and events, while also running a business that sells scientific equipment and chemicals.

Quiet for many years, Lazar joined the popular media stream that followed the U.S. Department release of video footage (2021) and a NASA report and congressional hearings into UAPs and how much the government knows (2023).