According to a tweet last night from KLAS Las Vegas 8 News Now investigative reporter George Knapp, the government shutdown has even affected the workers at Area 51, the top secret Air Force base in Nevada that is rumored to house crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Open Minds UFO Radio: John Greenewald has spent the last 17 years filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information on UFOs.

We discuss the recent developments with Element 115. We also discuss the passing of Jesse Marcel, Jr. That and other space and UFO news on this episode of Spacing Out!

AIR DATE: 9/6/13

Scientists are one step closer to confirming the super-heavy Element 115.

Open Minds UFO Radio: Joe Rogan, a comedian and actor, is also a self proclaimed life-long paranormal mystery addict. He has a new show on the Syfy Channel titled Joe Rogan Questions Everything, in which he explores the evidence for various paranormal phenomena. The latest episode was on UFOs and featured Open Minds editor and writer, Jason McClellan.

• Beyond Area 51: 16 Secret UFO Locations – truTV (removed by source)
• CIA: UFO Sightings in 50s, 60s Were of Spy Planes – Military.com
• Several Report Strange Lights Over Monroe – Monroe Evening News
• UFO Days in Fyffe; A festival that's out of this world - WAAY
• Is it a bird, a plane, a UFO? It's a...red sprite - Phys.Org

We discuss the recently re-released CIA documents that mention Area 51 by name. We also discuss alleged UFOs over a swimming pool in Florida. That and other space and UFO news on this episode of Spacing Out!

AIR DATE: 8/23/13

• UFO Sighting or Planets? Indian Army Spots Mysterious Object in Ladakh Skies Again – IBTimes India
• C.I.A. Acknowledges Area 51 Exists, but What About Those Little Green Men? – New York Times
• Petaluma mystery lights explained – Petaluma Argus Courier
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified: Is This Game A Government Conspiracy To Cover Up UFO Truth? - Huffington Post
• Alcohol, aliens and apocalypse - Montreal Gazette (removed by source)

• What other mysteries still lurk at Area 51? – MassLive.com
• The Ethics of Interstellar Alien Encounters – Discovery News
• Alien Life on Europa? Funding Gap Means We May Never Know – Yahoo!
• UFO? No, It's Venus - Discover Magazine
• Eastern Ky. residents not satisfied with Google's answer to flying object - WHAS 11

Bob Lazar’s claims that he worked on back-engineered extraterrestrial spacecraft near Area 51 catapulted the secretive base into the legendary status it now holds.

• UFO sightings? Believers say Area 51 truth is still out there – Christian Science Monitor
• More UFOs spotted over Whidbey Island skies – South Whidbey Record
• Mysterious UFO sighted in Ladakh on India-China border by army – India TV News
• UC Berkeley scientists seek signs of extraterrestrial intelligence - Daily Californian
• Mayor baffled by buried 'alien head' - Orange UK News

The National Security Archives at George Washington University have posted a document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that finally officially acknowledges the existence of Area 51, although this is not the first official document to reference Area 51 and the CIA’s account of the U-2 and UFOs is not entirely accurate.

• CIA: The mysterious Area 51 exists! – USA Today
• SOS signal from UFO sows panic in Siberia – Pravda
• New York Skies: Flying Saucers – The Classic UFO – Syracuse New Times
• Jumping Cow Spotted In Suspicious British UFO Video - Huffington Post
• Aliens forget stuff on Earth: vibrating orb and other mysterious objects - The Voice of Russia

Bob Lazar is best known as the whistleblower that outed Area 51 and its extraterrestrial secrets. He claims to have been an employee there tasked with back engineering alien technology. In a recent email from his company, apparently he is now a science and technology consultant to Raytheon, and his company has contracts with the military.

Simon Pegg tweeted that he felt responsible for the imprisonment of a Chinese man who recently hoaxed an alien encounter that went viral. The hoaxer, Li Kai, says he was partially inspired by the movie, Paul, written by, and starring, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

A new documentary is in the works about the discoveries of aerospace illustrator, Mark McCandlish. He says information has been shared with him about an Alien Reproduction Vehicle built by the military using technology that has been back engineered from alien technology.

Video testimony by an anonymous alleged former CIA official was shown at the Citizen Hearing

The museum has announced its first lectures of 2013, and just like last year, many of these presentations are UFO-related.

• RH's Wanda and the Alien to hit TV screens - The Bookseller
• Probe of Antarctica's hidden lakes may yield clues to extraterrestrial life - CNN
• UFO Wars Being Engaged in Antarctica - International Business Times AU
• Martians Invade UConn in ‘War of the Worlds’ on Campus Radio - UConn Advance
• Top Secret AREA 51 UFO Manual To Be Revealed - EIN News

Cows, horses, sheep, and other animals are sometimes found dead with unusual incisions, missing body parts, and no blood.