Gary McKinnon

With visible cooperation from the U.S.

Air Force, the production of the show Stargate leaned on real world military structures and culture.

In fact, two sitting Air Force chiefs of staff, Michael E. Ryan and John P. Jumper, appeared on the show as themselves.

These guys literally ran the Air Force and were showing up for cameos on this show.

The lead actor on the show, Richard Dean Anderson, was later made an honorary brigadier general in recognition of what the Air Force described as the program's positive portrayal of the service.

The show's central premise?

A classified off-world program run by the Air Force from a hidden command facility.

Show up.

Of course, the military connection might have just been due to some fans among the Air Force staff.

Or maybe it was just another tiny hint towards something really big going on in secret.

Strange stories of a parallel space program are apocryphal, but they are more abundant than you might think.

Like this stunning revelation shared with Ross Coulthard on Chris Ramsey's Area 52.

There was a conversation I had with someone...

It's important to remember that the public didn't even know the NRO, or National Reconnaissance Office, existed for decades.

The Parallel Classified Air Force Astronaut Program wasn't fully declassified until 2015.

So is it so crazy to think we might have experimented with covert human spaceflight and exotic material supply chains since then?

The benefits of building materials in space cannot be understated.

Matter in space, because of its lower gravity environment, behaves in ways that are basically impossible on Earth.

Without gravity, there's no convection, no settling, no buoyancy tearing materials apart as they form.

Liquids stay perfectly mixed.