Robert Scott Lazar; born January 26, 1959, is an American who is primarily known for his claims of having been hired in the late 1980s to reverse-engineer purported extraterrestrial technology at a secret site called “S-4”, allegedly located several kilometers south of the United States Air Force facility popularly known as Area 51.

Lazar claims he examined an alien craft that ran on an antimatter reactor powered by element 115, which at the time had not yet been synthesized. He also claims to have read US government briefing documents that described alien involvement in human affairs over the past 10,000 years. Lazar’s claims resulted in bringing added public attention to Area 51 and fueling conspiracies theories surrounding its classified activities.

Lazar’s story has since been analyzed and rejected by skeptics and ufologists alike, including researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who point out Lazar was never employed at Nellis Air Force Base and does not hold degrees from MIT or Caltech, as he claims.

In May 1989, Lazar appeared in an interview with investigative reporter George Knapp on Las Vegas TV station KLAS, under the pseudonym “Dennis” and with his face hidden, to discuss his purported employment at “S-4”, a subsidiary facility he claimed exists near the Nellis Air Force Base installation known as Area 51. He said the S-4 facility was adjacent to Papoose Lake, which is located south of the main Area 51 facility at Groom Lake. He claimed the site consisted of concealed aircraft hangars built into a mountainside. Lazar said that his job was to help with the reverse engineering of one of nine flying saucers, which he alleged were extraterrestrial in origin. Lazar claims one of the flying saucers, the one he coined the “Sport Model”, was manufactured out of a metallic substance similar in appearance and touch to stainless steel. In a subsequent interview that November, Lazar appeared unmasked and under his own name.

Lazar claimed that the propulsion of the studied vehicle was fueled by the chemical element with atomic number 115, or “E115” (which in the 1980s was presumed to exist but had not yet been artificially created; it was first synthesized in 2003 and later named moscovium). Lazar explained that the propulsion system relied on a stable isotope of E115, which he explained generates a gravity wave that allowed the vehicle to fly and to evade visual detection by bending light around it. No stable isotopes of moscovium have yet been synthesized; all have proven extremely radioactive, decaying in a few hundred milliseconds.

In addition, Lazar claimed that during his onboarding to the program, he read briefing documents describing the historical involvement of Earth for the past 10,000 years with extraterrestrial beings described as grey aliens from a planet orbiting the twin binary star system Zeta Reticuli. The Zeta Reticuli system was previously claimed by Barney and Betty Hill as the origin of aliens they allegedly encountered. As of September 2019, no extrasolar planets have been found in the Zeta Reticuli system.

Lazar’s story quickly garnered enormous media attention, controversy, supporters, and detractors. Lazar admits he cannot support with evidence his core claim of alien technology. He continues to make the same claims as of 2019.

Lazar took electronics courses in the late 1970s at Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles. He also claims he earned a master’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a master’s degree in electronic technology from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); however, there are no records of Lazar attending either MIT or Caltech.

In 1990, Lazar was arrested for aiding and abetting a prostitution ring. This was reduced to felony pandering, to which he pleaded guilty. He was ordered to do 150 hours of community service, stay away from brothels, and undergo psychotherapy. Bankruptcy documents verify that Lazar was self-employed as a film processor.

Lazar owns and operates United Nuclear Scientific Equipment and Supplies, which sells a variety of materials including radiation sensors, radioactive ores, non-radioactive elements (such as pure silicon), powerful magnets, and other scientific equipment such as aerogel, as well as a variety of lab chemicals. In 2006, Lazar and his wife Joy White were charged with violating the Federal Hazardous Substances Act for shipping restricted chemicals across state lines. The charges stemmed from a 2003 raid on United Nuclear’s business offices, where chemical sales records were examined.

United Nuclear pleaded guilty to three criminal counts of introducing into interstate commerce, and aiding and abetting the introduction into interstate commerce, banned hazardous substances. In 2007, United Nuclear was fined $7,500 for violating a law prohibiting the sale of chemicals and components used to make illegal fireworks.

It is no surprise that Lazar’s claims are controversial, including his claims that the alleged alien propulsion system uses element 115. At the time, scientist theorized that if they could produce element 155, it would have a half-life so short it would only exist for a fraction of a second. Sure enough, when scientists finally produced element 155 in a lab, it was gone in milliseconds. Lazar claims the element 155 he used could remain stable and even claimed to a have piece.

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