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The Aliens Never Left Roswell, NM 55

In 1947, A High-Altitude

Balloon Crash Landed in

Roswell. The Aliens Never

Left

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By early July 1947, Brazel had heard
tales of flying saucers in the Pacific Northwest.
These sightings spurred him to show his
discovery to the authorities, but just one day
after the Air Force announced it had come into
possession of a flying saucer, Roswell’s
morning newspaper debunked the story.
A published statement from the War
Department in Washington claimed the debris
collected on Brazel’s ranch was the remains of a
weather balloon, and the Roswell Dispatch’s
morning headline, “Army Debunks Roswell
Flying Disc as World Simmers with
Excitement,” set the tale to rest on July 9.
“But we need to back it up, here,” says
Launius. “What was really going on was
something called Project Mogul.”
In this classified program, the U.S. toward Russia, a long tail equipped with Trespassing” signs, often with a reminder to
government launched high-altitude balloons different types of sensing and listening devices those who entered illegally: “Use of Deadly
into the ionosphere, hoping to monitor Russian trailed behind. Force Authorized.”
nuclear tests. “The Russians wouldn’t get a “But, obviously, something happened to And the alien hysteria had gotten even
nuclear weapon until 1949,” Launius adds. “But this one balloon,” Launius says. “It came back to wackier. By the early 1990s, with scant evidence
we didn’t know that in 1947.” Earth and probably was spread across a wide to support it, a global UFO and extraterrestrial
And, Launius adds, thanks to the new, area.” industry had come into existence. There were
horrifyingly powerful weapon and a changing Although much of the documentation more movies. More books. More newspaper and
geopolitical landscape, it was a time of about Project Mogul has now been declassified, magazine stories, more television news
paranoia. Launius says that civilian access to information segments and shows focused on visitors from
Still, if the rumor of extraterrestrial failed to stop the lure of extraterrestrial life. space.
visitors had been put to rest by the government, Because the U.S. government was now In Roswell, the populace had been
it didn’t die as easily in the public mind. in a frenzy of nuclear testing—both in the South cashing in on the alien craze for some time. The
“But that was it, really,” says Launius. Pacific and, later, at the Nevada Test Site—the town was home to the International UFO
“The debate was over. It was to be the end of hermetic silence around classified government Museum and Research Center, and even a local
speculation. According to the government, the programs left a certain segment of citizens Wal-Mart got into the spirit, decorating its walls
matter was closed. The debris was from a suspicious. The UFO sightings continued. and front windows with green-skinned, large-
weather balloon.” “Then we get to the late 1970s and early headed aliens. Roswell’s civic seal sports an
Of course, though, that wasn’t the end. 1980s,” Launius says. “And that period saw a artist rendering of an alien, and the exterior of
There would be a 1948 report from the real spike in extraterrestrial interest, from the local McDonald’s in town has enough
government about what was now being called movies to books and other things.” spacecraft-based accessories to look like a ship
the “Roswell Incident.” In 1950, Frank Scully, a Movies such as Star Wars, Close preparing to take off for some distant galaxy.
reporter for Variety, wrote Behind the Flying Encounters of the Third Kind and ET, plus Along the town’s Main Street, toy aliens, flying
Saucers, a book that detailed alien encounters dozens of books on the subject, brought aliens to saucers and other extraterrestrial ephemera are
from the Pacific Northwest to the towns of the forefront of the public mindset once again. sold in local shops.
Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico, where “By that time,” Launius says, “people’s Roger Launius has served as the chief
aliens were now said to be landing their aircrafts imaginations had gotten the best of them.” historian of NASA and sat on several
in people’s backyards. Suddenly, there were rumors of regular investigative panels discussing what might exist
By then, enthusiasm for flying saucers extraterrestrial life on Earth, not to mention beyond Earth, but he seems more amused by the
had spread everywhere from Belgium to Russia crashed spaceships. There were now stories of 70 years of hysteria surrounding the “Roswell
and Japan. A rumor that had started as a two alien ships crashing in New Mexico in June Incident” than anything else.
convenient lie for the Air Force had become a 1947, scattering their contents and tiny green “Well, all I really know,” he says, “is that
distraction to the U.S. government, which was crewmen across the landscape. Before long, any UFOs are exactly that. They’re unidentified
now deep into its nuclear weapons monitoring secret government property—from nuclear sites objects seen in the air. But that’s not
projects. “But there was no way the Air Force to engineering locations—was suspected to extraterrestrials.” []
was going to admit what it was doing,” Launius house deceased or imprisoned aliens.
says. This was most evident at Area 51, an off-
Project Mogul was conducted out of limits airstrip and aircraft engineering and
Washington, D.C. and the Los Alamos National development facility inside the Nevada Test
Laboratory in New Mexico, with some high- Site, about 90 minutes north of Las Vegas. It was
altitude balloon launches taking place in the rumored that aliens from the Roswell spacecraft
high desert near the state’s border with Texas. and other crashed ships were either being
Typically, a Project Mogul balloon sent into autopsied or slid into cylindrical glass tanks
high altitude stretched 657 feet from tip to tail, containing gel-like preservatives.
102 feet taller than the Washington Monument The government wasn’t helping to quell
and twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty. speculation, either. At their most secretive sites,
As balloons rode on the upper jet stream they posted large, unambiguous “No