Jack Parsons

Rocket pioneer by day, magician by night. His Babalon Working preceded the saucers.

Co-founder of JPL, inventor of castable rocket fuel, and high priest of the Agape Lodge — the résumé no screenwriter would dare. In 1946 he and L. Ron Hubbard conducted the Babalon Working in the Mojave, intending to open a door. Hubbard left with his boat and his girlfriend; Parsons died in 1952 in a garage explosion officially ruled accident. The UFO era began, believers note, the following June. NASA named a crater for him — on the far side.