All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens S13E06 Area 52

There is where Area 51 is now.

Oh, wow!

NARRATOR: It is America's most
infamous military installation.

DAVID CHILDRESS: For decades,
witnesses in that area

are seeing unusual craft
hovering over the base.

NARRATOR: The place
where top secret experiments,

involving alien technology,

are rumored to be taking place.

There is extraterrestrial
technology at Area 51.

NARRATOR:
But is Area 51 still viable,

now that the top secret is out?

MIKE BARA: This underground
expansion has stretched

all the way through Nevada
into Utah.

NARRATOR: Or do other,
even more covert places exist,

where mankind's
extraterrestrial future

is being prepared?

Where are Areas 52, 53, and 54?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Langley, Virginia.

August 15, 2013.

After decades of secrecy,
denials and cover-ups,

the CIA declassifies documents

which acknowledge the existence

of a top secret military
research facility

known as Area 51.

This was an historic
announcement.

Finally, these years of rumors

that the UFO community and the
conspiracy theory community

had been claiming to be true
had been validated.

BARA: The federal government
was forced to acknowledge

the existence
of the Area 51 base

because of a Freedom
of Information Act request.

It took them over a decade
to actually respond,

but in the end,
they eventually had to admit

what everybody already knew,

which was that
Area 51 did exist.

NARRATOR: Since 1955,

this top secret base,

located in the remote desert
of southern Nevada,

has been considered
the epicenter

of the military's
most classified projects,

from the U-2 spy plane

to the F-117 stealth fighter.

But many believe

that in the darkest corners
of Area 51

lurks an even bigger secret--

One that hides
the ultimate evidence

of extraterrestrial contact.

POPE: While the admission that
Area 51 existed was important,

it didn't go far enough
for many people

who were hoping that the
government was going to confirm

all the rumors
about crashed UFOs

and recovered
alien technology were true.

But the government
said nothing about that.

BARA: They only gave us
the exact minimal amount

of information
that was requested.

They did not give us
any more information.

And they certainly appear
to still be covering up

what exactly goes on at Area 51.

DOLAN: Over the years,

there have been a number
of claims by people

who have been
associated with Area 51

who have spoken to journalists
or whistle-blowers

in which they have stated,
quite explicitly,

that there is extraterrestrial
technology at Area 51.

The theory was that they
had hired propulsion experts,

engineers, physicists,

to reverse engineer
alien propulsion technology,

which was so far
in advance of ours,

and they were doing that
at Area 51.

BARA: We also have rumors
that there are alien spacecraft

on the base that have actually
been tested and flown

out of Area 51.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that scientists at Area 51

have been able
to not merely study,

but successfully
reverse engineer

an extraterrestrial craft?

DOLAN:
For 30 years, people have gone

to the perimeter
with binoculars, telescopes.

They've seen bright objects
moving in angular motions,

or zigzag motions,

and in ways that seem to be
well beyond anything

that we have ever seen,

and propulsion technology
that's not readily identifiable.

NARRATOR: But if Area 51

is the place where
the U.S. government

is conducting its most top
secret military research,

and possibly hiding
decades of evidence

concerning alien contact,

just how secret is it now?

If everyone knows that it exists

and what kind of work
is done there,

could Area 51
have outlived its purpose

as a strategic military asset?

In search of the answers,
ancient astronaut theorist

Giorgio Tsoukalos has traveled
to Henderson, Nevada.

- Hello. Great to meet you.
- Hello.

NARRATOR: He has arranged
to meet with TD Barnes,

a former electrical engineer

who worked on classified
military projects

at Area 51 for more
than four decades.

- Only in 2009.
- Yeah, 2009.

And when did you start
your work there?

TSOUKALOS: So almost 50 years

you kept it a secret
from your wife.

And what did you work on?

Okay.

Let's hypothetically say

that a UFO crashes

and you get ahold of it.

Would we be able to reverse
engineer that technology?

Wow.

I mean, for all
intents and purposes,

that was a secret space program.

Do you think that this

secret space program
stills exists today?

Okay. Now, while you
were working there,

did you ever see anything weird
up in the sky?

Wow.

In your estimation, when you
read these stories about

some companies trying
to develop a warp drive,

or even an antimatter
propulsion system,

is this something
actually achievable?

Ah, that's tremendous.

NARRATOR:
But if, as TD Barnes suggests,

the military has successfully

reverse engineered anti-gravity

and flying saucer technologies
at Area 51,

what are they working on now?

And if its purpose
is still to operate

as the government's
most highly classified,

top secret laboratory,

why would they admit
to the existence of Area 51?

Especially after decades
of silence?

One possibility about
the public announcement

that Area 51 exists,

is that the real action
has moved elsewhere.

In other words, the CIA,

the government,
only felt able to come clean

about this because
the real secrets

have been moved somewhere else.

So in a real sense, perhaps,

the question isn't so much
what's going on at Area 51,

but what's going on
at Area 52, 53, and 54?

NARRATOR: Area 52? 53?

And 54?

Might there really be other,

even more secret locations,

where the government
is continuing to study

and replicate
extraterrestrial technology?

Having one big place

where everybody
is doing the research

is not a good idea

because it would be hard to hide
from the general public.

So the idea that there
might be any single, individual

Area 51 where they're reverse
engineering alien spacecraft,

now, that seems a little bit
an outdated concept.

If I were going to do it,

I would spread the technology
pieces out across the country.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the reason government officials

revealed the existence
of Area 51

is because they want
to use it as a decoy?

One that takes the focus away
from their other,

perhaps even bigger, operations

at numerous sites
all across the United States?

So the fact that
they would finally admit

that Area 51 exists is actually,
to my mind, a smoke screen.

What's really going on
is that you've got

all these massive
underground facilities.

You can take all
the really good stuff

you don't want anybody
to see and simply

move it somewhere else
in the blink of an eye.

NARRATOR: While the public
remains focused on what is

or isn't happening at Area 51,

could the government
be hiding its research

into extraterrestrial technology

at other strategic sites

all across the country?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by investigating reports
of an extensive

tunneling operation
currently underway

in the Nevada desert.

NARRATOR: Rachel, Nevada.

March 17, 2018.

Just outside the perimeter
of Area 51,

Giorgio Tsoukalos

meets with researcher
Wolf McCarron

and mining expert
Christian Gronau.

They are here
to investigate rumors

of an alleged tunnel network
that lies beneath Area 51.

- This is amazing.
- Isn't it?

NARRATOR:
Wolf and Christian believe

this location--
The Tempiute Mine--

Is one of several old Nevada
mines that have been used

to expand operations at Area 51,

deep underground.

I'm a miner, about 100 miles
north of Area 51 here,

and I've been mining there
since 1992.

I also own a mine in Goldfield.

So I'm just an avid miner,
you know-- I search these out.

So what can you tell us
about Area 51?

Well, Area 51, what you see,

like, on Google Imagery, that
was the '50s, '60s and '70s.

Since then, they've gone down.

Everything they do
is underground.

And what evidence

have you come across as a miner

that would corroborate
your idea?

People are questioning, well,
if they're going down,

where is all the dirt going?

Well, it's going
to these nearby mines,

and they're putting it
in huge mountains,

and they're heap leaching it.

And by the time they're done

heap leaching a huge mountain,

it goes down to nothing.

Now, to the uninitiated,

what does heap leaching mean?

It is-- they pile the ore up

into a large mountain,
hundreds of feet high,

and they run hoses all the way
through it, like every two feet,

and they leach in mercury
and cyanide.

And what that does,
it'll take boulders this large

and actually just bring them
down to nothing.

Really?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Is the government
using heap leaching

inside the Tempiute Mine
in order to hide

the massive amounts of dirt
being removed

in the course of their
digging operations?

But if so, how is the government
able to conduct

such an enormous operation
without arousing the suspicion

of the local miners?

These mines around here
have gold, silver, lead.

So any mine would be more than
happy to accept the ore.

And it's kinda like
hush-up money.

I've witnessed this hush up
and dealt with this a lot.

Hush up of what?

Hush up of the base
and the tunnels of Area 51.

Okay.

It's sort of self-explanatory
that the reason

why people would go underground
is if there are experiments

going on that there's
no interference,

or less interference.

Exactly. Yeah.

NARRATOR: Has the U.S. military

been expanding its operations
at Area 51 not outward,

but downward,

in order to keep
its top secret work

even more secret than before?

It is my own belief,

based on a lot of good research,

that there is most likely
a large--

I would even say vast-- web
of interconnected,

underground bases and tunnels
that exist.

They originally started doing
it, by the way,

just to protect against
an atomic strike

that could've happened
from the Soviet Union.

And you need secure
underground facilities.

Well, they took that
and just ran with it.

NARRATOR:
There are those that believe

that the underground operations
being conducted at Area 51

are only the tip
of an enormous iceberg.

Is it just one of many secret
government facilities,

each connected to each other
by a vast network

of underground
high-speed trains?

An underground train system

is said to be centered
around Cheyenne Mountain

in Colorado Springs.

This is a mountain
that has been hollowed out

by the U.S. military.

It's the NORAD central command.

And they go from Cheyenne
Mountain, in Colorado Springs,

to Dulce, New Mexico,
which is said to have

an extraterrestrial
underground base.

Then it goes to Los Alamos,
in New Mexico,

then to Albuquerque,
and to Roswell,

and to Area 51, in Nevada.

All of these military bases
are essentially connected

by a secret underground
subway system.

BILL BIRNES: The folks who are
looking at Area 51,

they're not looking at Dulce.

Dulce, New Mexico, is on
Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

It's actually a separate entity.

It's part of the Apache Nation.

In other words,
you can't just go there.

CHILDRESS: There is a peak just
north of the town of Dulce

called Archuleta Peak.

And residents of Dulce claim
to have seen UFOs

coming in and out
of that mountain.

The U.S. government is saying
that there's nothing there--

They have no military
base there,

there's not some underground
train network.

And yet,
people who live there say

there is something
going on here.

So, just like Area 51,
where the government was saying,

hey, there's
nothing going on here,

but researchers for decades knew
and investigated things

that were going on there.

And so perhaps at Dulce,
one day, they will admit...

yes, something was
going on there.

NARRATOR:
Is there really a vast network

of top secret government
laboratories,

each conducting experiments

using extraterrestrial
technology?

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

the answer is a profound yes.

And they offer,
as additional proof,

not one located at a facility
in the American southwest

but one much farther
to the east.

A military base they claim
has been working directly

with extraterrestrials
for decades

and operating very close
to the location

where mankind made its first
successful effort

to reach the sky.

NARRATOR: Dayton, Ohio.

Here, on the very same plains
where Wilbur and Orville Wright

lifted mankind
into the era of flight,

sits Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base,

one of the largest
and highest-funded bases

in the nation's military.

It is up there as one
of the single most important

military, technology,
back-engineering study

in biological entities
of any place we have.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

Wright-Patterson--
Or Wright-Patt,

as it is more commonly called--

Has been a hub of
extraterrestrial investigation

and experimentation for decades.

Some even consider it
of greater strategic importance

than Area 51.

DOLAN:
So, the rumors and stories

of aliens at Wright-Patt

have been very widespread
for a very long period of time.

And there have also been claims
that unknown aerial vehicles

or UFOs are being stored
deep underground.

NARRATOR: On June 14, 1947,

an unidentified object
reportedly crashed on a farm

outside the town
of Roswell, New Mexico.

According to eyewitnesses,

the object resembled
some sort of flying disc,

and the bodies recovered
from the wreckage

looked like nothing
from this planet.

Within days,
the so-called Roswell incident

captured the imaginations

of millions of people
around the world.

But just as the event

jump-started America's interest
in UFOs,

it also ushered in the era
of the government cover-up.

DOLAN: The Roswell Base
issued a press release,

and then several hours later,
it's all denied.

"Sorry, people,
just a weather balloon.

"Our top intelligence officers

didn't know what
they were looking at."

And we actually have evidence

of an FBI memo
that made such a statement,

that what was recovered

was being brought
to Wright Field for analysis.

Well, you're not going to bring
balloon parts

to Wright Field for analysis.
That's not going to happen.

CHILDRESS: You've got
to remember that in 1947

when the Roswell crash happened,

there was no Area 51 in Nevada.

And in fact, the important
Air Force headquarters

to study these crashed artifacts
and possibly alien bodies

was Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

BARA: Now, the reason
that this wreckage

would have been sent to
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

is because at that time,

it was the center
of the Air Force's

Foreign Technology Division,
meaning the division

that actually studied
foreign aircraft,

foreign technologies
of all kinds,

and certainly alien tech,

wrecked alien spacecrafts

and report
of alien spacecraft sightings

would be sent there
to be studied

by the Foreign
Technology Division.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

that Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base

is still housing the remains
of the object

recovered from the New Mexico
desert more than 70 years ago?

And if so,
could there be evidence

that their efforts to recreate
the so-called flying disc

have been successful?

CHILDRESS:
Even now, in the last few years,

there have been important
UFO sightings around Dayton.

And witnesses in that area

are looking out over
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

and, even in broad daylight,

seeing unusual craft
hovering over the base.

This is a very distinct
possibility

that's supported by the fact

that no jets are released
when these UFOs appear.

It's almost as if they know
what they are.

Maybe it's because

it's one of our own
reverse engineered craft.

NARRATOR: But even if the UFOs
recently sighted in the skies

above Wright-Patterson
are man-made,

couldn't that be
considered proof

that the UFO
that crash-landed near Roswell

was, in fact,
reverse engineered?

Ancient astronaut theorists say
yes, and to support their claim,

they point to two other
top secret UFO investigations

that took place
at Wright-Patterson:

Project Sign
and Project Blue Book.

BARA: Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base was the center,

the hub, for Project Sign
and Project Blue Book.

Now, both of these projects
were involved

with one essential task,

which was the study and
categorization of reports

of unidentified flying objects.

POPE: Project Sign was set up

after the flying saucer
wave of sightings

across the United States
in 1947,

and shortly after
the Roswell crash.

Sign researched
and investigated the phenomenon,

taking reports,
not just from the public,

but from the military, from
pilots who were seeing things,

from radar operators
who were tracking these objects.

This was the U.S. government's
formal UFO program.

SZYMANSKI: The Air Force had
22 years of UFO investigation

that was housed in
the Foreign Technology Division,

and Blue Book
is the most famous and ran

for the longest period of time.

They go out and they look
for foreign technology,

including crashed wreckage.

And then, they have access

to all of the technical
expertise on the base.

NARRATOR: In 1969,
after compiling and studying

more than 12,000 UFO sightings,

Project Blue Book
was terminated.

Most of the sightings
were categorized

as high-altitude spy planes
or natural aerial phenomena,

although approximately 700
unidentified cases still remain.

But while the U.S. Air Force
insists to this day

that credible evidence
of extraterrestrial visitation

never existed,

many former employees of
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,

such as Ray Szymanski,

have come forward
with a very different story.

I started working at Wright-
Patterson in January of 1973,

and I had 38 years and nine
months of service

when I retired.

I spent nearly my entire career
at Air Force Research Labs,

and I did advanced research
and development.

On the first day of working
there, I had a mentor.

His name was Corvette Al.

He was the equivalent
of a flag officer,

a general or an admiral,

and he said,
"Let's go through the hangar,"

and as we stepped
into that hangar,

he turned to me and said,

"Have you heard
about our aliens?"

I said, "What?"

He said, "Yeah, we have
aliens here on the base."

I said, "Really?"

And then, he said, "Well, yeah,
there was a crash out west,

and they brought the aliens
and their machine."

He used the word "machine."

Brought here to Wright-Patterson
for evaluation

and possible exploitation.

Hangar 18 was this mysterious
hangar at Wright Field where

we actually have an eyewitness
who was taken to Hangar 18,

Lieutenant Colonel
Marion Magruder.

He was a fighter pilot in
the United States Marine Corps

who saw the alien technology,

but worse,
he saw the live alien.

It looked human,

its head was larger
than humans',

its arms were much longer,

and it moved like this
in a wavy motion.

The humanoid communicated
with Magruder telepathically,

and the Army and the Air Force,

as well as the higher branches
of the Pentagon,

were absolutely fascinated
by the fact that here

were creatures who could
communicate without using words.

Thus began a series of
experiments into psychokinesis,

psychic projection,
thought projection.

NARRATOR: If the Magruder
account is true,

and the U.S. military

was once using live aliens
for scientific study,

where did those experiments
take place?

Was it at Wright-Patterson?

Area 51?

Or were they conducted
at yet another facility?

And, if so, where?

And are they still
taking place today?

NARRATOR: Long Island, New York.

Here, at the eastern tip
of the island,

is all that remains of
the Montauk Air Force Station.

Originally established
as a naval base in 1917

due to its strategic
defensive location,

the Montauk installation
protected the East Coast

from submarines and bombers

for several decades, before
it was decommissioned in 1981.

But according to statements
from multiple whistle-blowers,

a secret laboratory hidden
deep beneath the base

may still be operating.

(wind gusting)

CHRISTOPHER GARETANO:
I think it's the perfect cover.

You have kind of a lax
topside operation,

an Air Force Station that really
nothing is going on at,

but underneath the ground, you
have this extremely elaborate

experiment going on, many levels
of an underground base.

Each of these men
that told the tale,

they don't say they entered
the base through,

you know, a topside location.

They would all enter Brookhaven
National Laboratories

and travel on a train underneath
the ground to Montauk.

So people that are working
above ground don't even know

what's going on
underneath the ground.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

Montauk, like Area 51
and Wright-Patterson,

remains notorious
as one of the places

the U.S. military would carry
out numerous experiments,

often with the aid
of otherworldly technology.

There are some who believe

these experiments

even involved human subjects

as part of a highly
controversial research program

known as the Montauk Project.

Some of the stories
about what was going on

in the Montauk Project actually
tie in with something

that we absolutely know
to be real,

because we have declassified
documents on it,

and that's MKUltra.

Now, MKUltra was a program run
by the CIA and the U.S. Army,

and it literally tried
to harness

the technique of mind control.

But there are rumors
that there were other,

more exotic techniques that
people were using at Montauk:

Remote influencing,
for example, which is the idea

that you can effectively use
the power of your mind

to influence
somebody else's behavior.

Clearly, there would be
huge military value

in such techniques,
and that, of course,

is exactly why
they were doing them.

BARA: This was stuff
that was so beyond

the normal thought processes
of the military mind.

It wasn't making better guns,
better ammo,

more efficient airplanes.

This was way beyond that.

This was a program that used all
sorts of different techniques

to try to control human thought.

NARRATOR: Mind control?

Remote thought manipulation?

If the U.S. military
really did believe

that such incredible power
was achievable,

did it get the idea
from extraterrestrials?

Perhaps even from the technology
reportedly recovered

after the crash at Roswell?

HOWE:
The big question about Montauk

has always been, were they
operating with the technologies

that they had because they were
given to our government

by non-humans, legitimately,
as some kind of collaboration

or trade,
for us to experiment with?

DOLAN:
One thing that's at Montauk

is the so-called Montauk Chair.

It had some kind of wires,
or there's some kind of

extraterrestrial technology
associated with this chair

and that, combined
with the individual's

innate psychic capabilities,

would allow you to engage
in transforming reality

in one way or another.

GARETANO: The subject would
sit in the chair,

and this chair was meant
to manifest thought

into physical reality.

And included in that are
telekinesis, remote viewing.

One of the experiments that they
used at first was to manifest,

let's say, a glass or a ball,

something simple,
an inanimate object.

Whatever the subject
was thinking

would manifest
into physical reality.

Eventually, this evolved into
heightened psychic abilities.

They claimed they could teleport
from one place to another.

NARRATOR:
According to many researchers

and ancient astronaut theorists,

accounts of the so-called
"Montauk Chair"

and its connection
to mind control

are strangely similar
to accounts of a chair

that dates back to the days
of the pharaohs:

The throne of Ptah.

Ptah was one of the most
intriguing gods

of Ancient Egypt.

He was the god
before all the other gods.

He created Earth.

He created humanity.

Unlike the other gods,

Ptah would create the world
with his thought.

He would think it, feel it
and hence, it was created.

HENRY: Ptah is portrayed
sitting on a throne.

And this throne is thought to be
the center point from which

his thought is able
to manifest creation.

What's fascinating
about these scenes

is that this throne
is feathered.

It's feathered because it flies.

It's known
as his ascension throne.

When we compare the descriptions
of the Montauk Chair

with the ascension throne
of Ptah,

it raises the question:
Was the U.S. military involved

in reverse engineering
an extraterrestrial technology

that was used thousands
of years ago in Ancient Egypt?

NARRATOR: Could the legends

about an Egyptian god
and his flying throne

and the report
of a thought-control chair

at the Montauk military base
really be connected?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes, and suggest

that not only has
the U.S. government been working

to acquire and perfect
alien technology for decades,

but that the operations
at Montauk are still going on.

Several people have claimed

that they were part
of these Montauk experiments.

They do recall sitting
in a special chair.

And people say that today

there is still activity
in the underground sections

of the Montauk base.

NARRATOR: Is the seemingly
abandoned military base

on Eastern Long Island still,
secretly, in operation?

And if so, is Montauk part
of a vast network

of government laboratories
and factories

where extraterrestrial
technology is being harvested?

Ancient astronaut
theorists insist

such an incredible notion
is true,

and they point to yet another
highly guarded installation

as proof that alien technology
is not only being tested,

but that it's
already being used.

NARRATOR: Washington, D.C.

December 16, 2017.

After a decade of speculation
within the UFO community,

officials at the Pentagon
confirm the existence

of a highly secretive
UFO research project

known as the Advanced Aerospace
Threat Identification Program,

or AATIP.

The project was funded
by Congress in 2007

with the help
of Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.

What's different about
the AATIP program is the fact

that it involved a private
company, Bigelow Aerospace.

This has never been done before.

The government previously
has always kept

all of its UFO
extraterrestrial information,

all of its reports,
completely separately.

So that makes it very,
very unique and very different

from Projects Sign
and Blue Book.

The Pentagon ran
this program officially

from 2007 to 2012,

although there's a lot of reason
to believe that the program

not only has continued,

but that multiple programs
of this sort have continued.

NARRATOR: But why would
the U.S. government

allow such sensitive research
to take place

outside of its
secure military facilities?

According
to ancient astronaut theorists,

the answer is all too obvious.

BIRNES: Over the years,

the government realized,

if you can take projects
that were developing

and move them
from inside the Pentagon itself,

and move them into industry,
guess what you get to avoid?

Freedom of information.

TAYLOR: Inside the government,

the military,
Department of Defense,

the scientists
and engineers there

are possibly susceptible to
the Freedom of Information Act.

People can fill out a
Freedom of Information Act form

and request information
on any government program.

Well, private companies
are not susceptible.

They don't have to adhere to
the Freedom of Information Act.

So the big aerospace
defense companies, for example,

can do their own research
in their own private facilities,

and they never have
to tell you anything about that

if they don't want to.

And when you look
at the exemptions

to the Freedom
of Information Act,

exemption number four
covers trade secrets,

information which belongs
to the private sector.

So when the government put out
some of their UFO programs

to Bigelow Aerospace,
what they were doing, cleverly,

was making scrutiny
much more difficult.

DOLAN:
And we know from Luis Elizondo,

the program manager
of the AATIP program,

that they received a number

of shocking UFO cases

that came their way

in connection
with the U.S. military.

The word he used was "beyond
next generation technology."

NARRATOR: According to sources
within the AATIP program,

the government
secretly collects materials--

Often referred to
as "metamaterials"--

From extraterrestrial
crash sites

and then turns them over

to be reverse engineered
by approved contractors,

like those at Bigelow Aerospace.

BIRNES: Metamaterials are

materials that
have been combined in such a way

that the isotopic ratios
of the materials

are not found on Planet Earth.

I worked with, uh,
some of these artifacts.

I put them through
various tests.

There was nothing unusual
about the materials

they were made of, but they
were layered in such a way

that it took some doing

to make them
in their configuration.

And also, the interesting piece
of it was when you put them

under extremely high
electric fields,

they tend to show properties
of propulsion,

meaning they would move
in directions,

sometimes toward the field,
sometimes away from the field,

that wasn't typical
of standard electrostatic things

that I had seen before.

What metamaterials will do
is they will alter

electromagnetic frequencies,

or the visual spectrum.

They can bend light if they're
engineered in such a way.

They can change
acoustic properties.

And the imagination
is the limit.

So they can really do
almost anything.

NARRATOR: Is the government's
increasing use

of outside agencies
and contractors

designed to throw
UFO investigators

and ancient astronaut
theorists off?

And if so, does that mean
that infamous top secret sites,

like Area 51 and its
alleged underground network

of covert laboratories
and military installations,

will soon be obsolete?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say no,

and they insist that,
if anything,

there are now
more government sites

engaged in extraterrestrial
research than ever,

and that this research
is no longer being confined

to areas
within the United States,

or even on Planet Earth.

NARRATOR: May 26, 2015.

The U.S. Air Force
announces that SpaceX,

an aerospace company run
by billionaire CEO Elon Musk,

is now eligible to participate

in the launch
of military satellites.

The announcement
leads many to speculate

whether SpaceX may be contracted
in the future for additional,

and perhaps even more covert,

military space projects.

BARA: In 2015, SpaceX--

Which is a private corporation,
of course--

Was actually certified
by the U.S. government

for national security launches
into space.

And what that means is,
you've now got

another private corporation
which is authorized

to actually put
secret payloads into orbit.

What that means is
that their entire operation

now kind of flows under the dark
umbrella of national security.

TAYLOR: It's possible
that the private ventures,

like SpaceX,
like Bigelow Aerospace

and the various others,
will come up with a way

to make it economically viable

to colonize Mars.

NARRATOR: For decades--

Ever since the first
Earth satellites

and rovers
began sending back data

about the so-called
"Red Planet"--

Mars has been the focus
of intense scrutiny

by ancient astronaut theorists.

They cite images
of structures...

carvings
and other strange anomalies

as evidence that Mars was--
And might still be--

A hub of extraterrestrial
activity.

Is it possible
that the U.S. government,

along with other nations,

has proof that such
an audacious notion is true?

And could this be the reason

why the human-based Mars
missions are being conducted

not by publicly funded
governments,

but by a number
of privately funded corporations

with their own
seemingly disparate agendas?

I am extremely familiar
with this technique,

and it's one of the ways
that you protect

classified information
and big secrets.

You can have
a highly classified project,

but effectively,
it's broken into small parts.

Everyone's working
on a piece of it.

No one necessarily knows what
the person next door to them

is doing, and very few people
have the big picture.

It's a world that
I've operated in myself

in my 21 years
at the Ministry of Defense.

POPE: It's even possible
that somebody could be working

on extraterrestrial technology
and not know it.

HENRY: We are on the cusp
of a brand-new reality

of super-advanced technology,
that will see us colonizing

the Moon, Mars,
traveling into deep space.

This is a chapter
that's opening in human affairs

that began as long ago as 1947
with the Roswell crash,

after which the U.S. military
began preparing us

for a life in which we will be
living with extraterrestrials,

both on Earth and in space.

NARRATOR: Are the U.S.
government's efforts to examine

and utilize extraterrestrials
and their technology

really on the threshold
of a bold new era?

One where places like Area 51,

Wright-Patterson, Montauk,

and even Mars
will all become part

of a larger
and more powerful network?

One that will facilitate

mankind's anticipated journey
to the stars?

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe

there are forces
in the government

that insist we are not yet ready
to have the answers,

and that the truth
must remain hidden away,

behind electric fences
and security cameras,

at places
both known and unknown,

and equally protected
by the notion

that what we can see
with our own eyes

could not possibly be true.

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