The Roswell Report: Project MOGUL
U.S. Air Force
1994
1947
The Air Force's own reconstruction of the 1947 Roswell debris as wreckage from a classified high-altitude balloon array built to detect Soviet nuclear tests by listening to the upper atmosphere.
Why it was classified
MOGUL's purpose — acoustic detection of foreign nuclear detonations — was among the most sensitive programs of the early atomic age.
Why it matters
The cover story was real, and so was the secret; the truth turned out to be an entirely different classified program.