When it comes to secret space projects, the stories get wilder than a sci‑fi blockbuster. From alleged lunar outposts to time‑bending missions, these ten conspiracies claim the governments are hiding whole worlds right under our noses.

Understanding the Secret Space Narrative

10 Alternative 3The Hoax Broadcast That Started It All?

Just after Anglia TV aired the documentary Alternative 3 in the UK in 1977, the phone lines lit up with bewildered viewers demanding answers. The film claimed that a covert space program had been building a Mars base for decades, prepping humanity for an impending Earth disaster.

The uproar was so intense that Anglia TV was forced to admit the program was a hoax—originally slated for an April Fools’ slot but delayed until June 20. Yet a legion of skeptics persisted, insisting the broadcast exposed a genuine hidden operation. This very hoax unwittingly sowed the seeds for countless secret‑space theories that still circulate today.

9 Project Serpo

In 2005 an internet whisper claimed the U.S. had struck a deal with extraterrestrials from a planet called Serpo in the Zeta Reticuli system. The story, allegedly leaked by a whistle‑blower named Victor Martinez, described how the government recovered a surviving Roswell crew member, an alien craft, and several deceased alien bodies.

The recovered alien allegedly helped scientists reverse‑engineer its technology and open a communication channel with its home world. By 1964 the “Ebens” supposedly returned to Earth, negotiating an exchange program dubbed Project Serpo. Twelve military volunteers were supposedly selected, their civilian identities erased.

These astronauts allegedly launched in 1965, vanished from contact for years, and re‑appeared in 1978—only eight alive. Two had perished en route, and two chose to remain on Serpo. The debriefings were said to span over 3,000 pages.

8 Solar Warden

The “Solar Warden” theory posits a clandestine fleet of spacecraft silently patrolling our solar system. Some believers argue the fleet defends Earth from alien threats; others claim it’s a covert colonization effort for an elite few.

Critics point out that even assuming the technology existed, maintaining such a fleet would run into the billions. Proponents counter that a deeper “black‑budget” exists, possibly funded by reverse‑engineered alien tech that’s roughly twenty years ahead of public knowledge.

NASA consultant Dr. Eric Norton even claimed he discovered a fleet of “technologically advanced” ships behind the Moon in 2012, noting that by the following year Mars seemed to lag further behind the mysterious fleet.

7 Project Horizon

Declassified files released by the National Security Archive in 2014 reveal Project Horizon—a 1959 initiative to evaluate a permanent Moon base. While the public narrative frames it as scientific progress, the documents suggest the primary motive was to outmaneuver the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The plan called for a “Moon‑to‑Earth surveillance system” that could monitor activities from a lunar outpost. Although Apollo missions did land on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, official accounts describe only brief stays for experiments and rock collection.

Conspiracy circles argue those missions were a façade, masking the construction of a hidden base. The original documents are available through the National Archives for anyone who wants to dig deeper.

6 The Rosetta Conspiracy

In late 2014 the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, promising the first close‑up study of a comet’s composition. Some skeptics, however, claim the “comet” was actually an alien craft that agencies deliberately concealed.

Whistle‑blowers allege that NASA had detected mysterious signals from the object two decades earlier, and that the comet’s exterior showed artificial, machine‑like components. Adding intrigue, ESA announced that 67P had broadcast a “mystery song,” fueling speculation that the object was anything but a natural rock.

5 Time Travel To Mars

According to informants Michael Relfe and Dr. Andrew D. Basiago, the CIA launched a secret time‑travel program in the late 1960s that also allowed teleportation to Mars. Relfe claims the operation began after the CIA pilfered Nikola Tesla’s papers following his 1943 death.

Recruited in 1976, Relfe says he spent two decades helping to install one of two Martian colonies. Upon mission completion, he was allegedly “age‑reversed” and sent back to his original timeline—a standard protocol, he asserts, with most participants having their memories suppressed.

Basiago adds that the CIA used exceptionally gifted schoolchildren for the missions, as adults reportedly went insane under the strain. He also claims to have seen a future 9/11 image in 1971, allegedly retrieved from the future via the program.

4 Secret Nazi Space Program From Reptilian Guidance

Beyond the well‑known Antarctic Nazi base rumors, some theorists assert that the Third Reich was building a secret space program with direct assistance from reptilian aliens. According to U.S. Navy intelligence officer William Tompkins, these extraterrestrials supplied the technical know‑how and guided the Nazis to hidden Antarctic sanctuaries.

Although it’s unclear whether the program ever achieved orbit, claims persist that the Nazis succeeded enough to establish a lunar base. After WWII, Operation Paperclip allegedly transferred these scientists to the United States, allowing the alleged program to continue under American oversight.

3 Remote Viewing To Jupiter

Before Pioneer 10 sent the first close‑up images of Jupiter, the CIA supposedly ran a secret remote‑viewing experiment that let participants “astrally” travel to distant planets. Stanford scientists were recruited, and one of the most famous participants, Ingo Swann, claimed to have witnessed a ring encircling Jupiter.

When Pioneer 10 later confirmed the presence of Jupiter’s rings, Swann’s prediction seemed eerily prescient. He also allegedly identified objects placed hundreds of miles from his physical body, bolstering his claim of successful astral projection.

While mainstream science dismisses remote viewing as fringe, Swann’s account remains a fascinating footnote—perhaps the only mind‑only voyage to Jupiter on record.

2 37B What Is It Doing?

By May 2016, the unmanned shuttle X‑37B had completed a full year in orbit, yet the public remained clueless about its purpose. NASA stayed tight‑lipped, while Russian media speculated the craft was part of a U.S. anti‑satellite weapons program—a modern echo of Reagan’s “Star Wars.”

Independent experts argue the shuttle’s design isn’t suited for weaponry, but the secrecy fuels endless conjecture. Senior scientist Laura Grego of the Global Security Program remarked she sees “no compelling reason” for such secrecy and can’t envision any experiment demanding it.

1 The Apollo 20 Mission To Ancient Alien Moon Base

In April 2007, YouTube user William Rutledge posted videos purporting to show a clandestine Apollo mission from August 1976. According to Rutledge, his team landed on the Moon, discovered an ancient alien base, and encountered a female humanoid in “suspended animation.”

The alien, dubbed “Mona Lisa,” allegedly weighed 75 kg and stood 170 cm tall, with five fingers plus a thumb—leading the crew to hypothesize that the aliens used a base‑12 counting system.

Rutledge claimed his crew had only rudimentary medical training but prepared to transport Mona Lisa back to Earth, famously declaring, “She is not—she is on Earth!”

Ready for a solar adventure? Here are 10 stellar facts about NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the bold spacecraft that’s set to literally touch the Sun. From a half‑century of planning to breaking speed records, this mission packs more excitement than a fireworks show on a solar flare.

10. Stellar Facts About NASA’s Sun Mission

10. Goal To ‘Touch The Sun’

The Parker Solar Probe is on a quest no other human‑made object has ever attempted: it will plunge into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, and collect data right where the action is. NASA’s official tagline captures the drama: “This summer, humanity embarks on its first mission to touch the Sun.”

Beyond the headline‑grabbing goal, the probe is designed to unravel the Sun’s secrets and show how solar activity shapes Earth’s magnetic environment—knowledge that’s becoming ever more crucial as our technology gets increasingly vulnerable to solar storms.

This historic plunge will answer long‑standing questions while inevitably sparking fresh mysteries for the next generation of solar scientists.

9. 50-Year Effort

The August 2018 launch capped more than five decades of theory, debate, and engineering. Scientists first sensed the corona’s million‑degree heat in the 1940s and confirmed the existence of the solar wind in the 1960s, yet the mechanisms behind these phenomena remained elusive.

It wasn’t until 1958 that someone proposed actually measuring the corona up close. Over the ensuing years, several spacecraft flirted with the Sun, but none ventured close enough to satisfy Parker’s vision. Budget cuts and shifting priorities shelved many earlier concepts, pushing the ultimate effort back repeatedly.

Now, after half a century of groundwork, the Parker Solar Probe finally brings those early ideas to fruition.

8. First Spacecraft Named After A Living Person

NASA has traditionally christened probes after planets, mythic deities, or even fictional characters, but never after a living individual—until now.

Eugene Parker, born in 1927, is a towering figure in astrophysics, boasting honors such as the National Medal of Science, the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal, and the Kyoto Prize. His pioneering work on solar wind and the coronal heating problem reshaped our understanding of how stars behave.

In a rare move, NASA named the mission after Parker before launch, making the Parker Solar Probe the first spacecraft to bear the name of a living person as it heads beyond Earth’s orbit.

7. Solar Wind

Solar wind is the mission’s beating heart. Originating in the Sun’s corona, this stream of charged particles can zip through space at speeds up to 1.6 million km/h (about 1 million mph).

Because the corona’s extreme heat weakens the Sun’s grip on its own particles, the wind escapes into the solar system, eventually reaching Earth where it can wreak havoc on satellites and power grids.

By sampling the wind right at its source, scientists hope to decode how the corona heats up and why the solar wind accelerates, turning a cosmic mystery into a tangible set of data.

6. The Sun Is Really Hard To Get To

Getting to the Sun is no walk in the park—its energy demands are roughly 55 times greater than a typical Mars transfer. Though the Sun sits 150 million km (93 million mi) away, the true challenge isn’t distance but the need to cancel out Earth’s sideways orbital motion.

Our planet rockets around the Sun at about 108,000 km/h (67,000 mph). A spacecraft launched directly toward the Sun would inherit this sideways velocity and miss the target entirely. The solution? Launch the probe “backward” at a speed that cancels Earth’s forward motion.

Even after solving the navigation puzzle, the probe still has to survive the blistering environment of the outer corona, a feat made possible by its cutting‑edge heat shield.

5. Gravity Assists From Venus

To shed its sideways speed gradually, the Parker Solar Probe takes advantage of Venus’s gravitational pull. Each close flyby of the planet acts like a cosmic brake, pulling the spacecraft into a tighter orbit around the Sun.

Over the mission’s seven‑year span, the probe will perform seven such Venus fly‑bys, each one shaving away enough orbital momentum to let it dive ever closer to the star.

This intricate dance dictates a narrow launch window—a two‑hour daily slot that repeats for about two weeks each summer when Earth and Venus line up just right.

4. Fastest Man‑Made Object In History

Thanks to the Venus assists, the Parker Solar Probe will eventually blaze through space at a jaw‑dropping 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph)—the fastest speed ever achieved by a human‑made object.

For perspective, NASA’s Juno spacecraft tops out at 266,000 km/h (165,000 mph), while Voyager 1 cruises at about 61,000 km/h (38,000 mph). Parker’s velocity is more than twice Juno’s and eleven times Voyager 1’s.

On Earth, that means the probe could zip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in just one second.

3. Heat Shield

The probe’s heat shield is a marvel of engineering. Measuring 2.4 m (8 ft) across, it sits at the front of the spacecraft, deflecting the Sun’s ferocious heat away from delicate instruments.

It consists of a 11.4 cm‑thick (4.5 in) block of carbon foam sandwiched between carbon‑carbon composite panels, together weighing just 73 kg (160 lb). While the corona’s temperature reaches 1.1–1.7 million °C (2–3 million °F), the shield’s design lets the probe survive by exploiting the sparse distribution of plasma particles.

Lead engineer Betsy Congdon likens it to briefly touching a blazing oven: “Those are very hot, but we’re not touching a lot of them.” The shield enables the probe to survive the Sun’s outer layers without melting.

2. Most Autonomous Spacecraft Ever

Because the Sun‑Earth communication lag is about eight minutes, the probe must act on its own in mere seconds when conditions change. Highly automated software lets it make rapid, real‑time adjustments without waiting for ground control.

The onboard computer is pre‑loaded with every plausible scenario scientists could imagine, allowing the heat shield to rotate, the spacecraft’s orientation to shift, and other critical maneuvers to happen autonomously.

Project scientist Nicola Fox of Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory calls the Parker Solar Probe “the most autonomous spacecraft that has ever flown.”

1. Unique Cargo

While the probe can’t carry heavy payloads, it does transport a very human cargo: the names of more than 1.1 million people who signed up for a virtual seat aboard the mission.

In March 2018, NASA invited the public to submit their names for a memory card on the spacecraft. Iconic actor William Shatner, famed for his role as Captain Kirk, helped promote the campaign, leading to a flood of submissions.“It’s fitting that as the mission undertakes one of the most extreme journeys of exploration ever tackled by a human‑made object, the spacecraft will also carry along the names of so many people who are cheering it on its way,” said project scientist Nicola Fox.

Kurt Manwaring is a syndicated freelance writer at fromthedesk.org.