Project Serpo — Did Twelve Humans Really Leave for Zeta Reticuli in 1965?

The real-world background — Zeta Reticuli

Zeta Reticuli is not fictional. It is a wide binary made of two nearby Sun-like stars, ζ¹ and ζ² Reticuli; Gaia parallax data place them about 12 parsecs, or roughly 39 light-years, away.

NASA includes both stars among targets of interest for future habitable-world searches, but that is not a planet detection. As checked in October 2026, the NASA Exoplanet Archive lists no confirmed planet around either star. A real star system does not establish a planet called Serpo or an Eben civilisation.

The story as circulated

In the first release dated 2 November 2005, ‘Anonymous’ claimed that contact with a surviving Roswell entity led to twelve military personnel—ten men and two women—boarding an alien craft near the Nevada Test Site in 1965. Their destination was said to be Serpo in the Zeta Reticuli system, whose inhabitants later posts called ‘Ebens’.

Later posts described a ten-year mission extended until a 1978 return, daily life on the planet, equipment inventories and a multi-thousand-page secret report. No independently verifiable public evidence—such as a team roster, original government file, photograph or mission record—was produced.

Earliest trace and transmission

The earliest located publication trail begins with Victor Martinez's email list in 2005. Bill Ryan assembled the material and launched serpo.org in November, adding commentary, corrections and messages of support or dispute. The original site is now offline, but edited mirrors and Internet Archive captures preserve its publication history.

This genealogy establishes when the claim entered public circulation, not whether the alleged event occurred. Roswell and the Betty and Barney Hill narrative form older cultural background used by Serpo retellings, but no documentary bridge was located that proves a 1965 exchange program.

Verification and fractures

The releases conflict over personnel and return totals. The first post says seven men and one woman—eight people—returned, with an editor's correction explaining two deaths and two who stayed. A 2006 follow-up instead says the project was renamed after seven team members returned. This is the traceable source of later seven-versus-eight retellings.

Richard Doty's AFOSI service is documented, but that credential does not validate Serpo. He is associated with acknowledged disinformation supplied to civilian UFO researchers and appears in disputes over the Serpo material's source and email metadata. Serpo.org recorded his denial of fabrication. His service record, his own claims and third-party allegations must therefore remain separate.

In 2007 Bill Ryan wrote that the releases mixed disinformation with compounded errors, while still stating his personal belief in a core of truth. That was neither a retraction nor independent verification; it was Ryan's own concluding assessment.