The success of the 1960s and 1970s in the area of space exploration had an amazing impact not only on all humanity, but also, perhaps even more so, on the extraterrestrial operating on Earth. For reasons that Aegis could only speculate, the Saurians were particularly troubled by the recent push into space. The Saurians seemed to fear most the development of a reusable space shuttle.

In February 1986, Aegis learned that the Saurians planned a fiendish plot to sabotage the space program. Aegis discovered that The Black Book had provided the Saurians with details about the route which the solid rocket boosters would travel. In exchange, The Black Book received technology necessary to build space craft of their own. Interestingly, Aegis also learned that knowledge of the principles behind the Saurian technology was not part of the deal. Thus, The Black Book remained dependent on the Saurians.

While the solid rocket boosters were en route to Cape Canaveral in Florida, a team of three Saurians masquerading as humans (the infamous Men in Black) replaced the security team and sabotaged the rockets. On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just moments after launch due to a malfunction in those booster rockets. The results were greater than the Saurians could have hoped. Not only was a reusable shuttle destroyed, but the graphic horror of the tragedy, transmitted into nearly every American home, shattered the public's faith in space exploration and NASA's space program in general. The act of Saurian terrorism revealed to Aegis the depth of NASA's vulnerability, and result in an increase in the number of NASA Cells.

One year after the Challenger tragedy, Aegis found itself facing more problems from outside forces. In 1987, the MJ-12 document that Aegis had buried so long ago resurfaced in the hands of two crusaders for "the right to know the truth about aliens". Aegis was unable to discover where the document came from, or how and why anyone would send it to these two UFOlogists. The MJ-12 document supported the accounts of witnesses from Roswell who had begun coming forward with their stories, but until then the appearance of the document had been paid little attention. This newfound credibility, however, actually aided Aegis as it supported a document which was a work of disinformation.

The widespread acceptance of the MJ-12 document upon its release revealed that more and more people were willing to believe in the existence of UFOs. In fact, since the early 70's, a radical "New Age" movement had been slowly gaining popularity. An integral part of the New Ager's doctrine was the belief that aliens were cosmic "Space Brothers" who wished to help humanity along the path to its own "Spiritual Awakening". Aegis was suddenly forced to deal with a public intrigued by extraterrestrial and willing to accept evidence of alien life. This mind set made Aegis' cover up operations more difficult. Fortunately, many UFO enthusiasts believed the MJ-12 document, or the New Agers, or both. This ensured that their belief in a phenomena that was real was based on details that were lies.