In November 1989, Lazar appeared in a special interview with investigative reporter George Knapp on Las Vegas TV station KLAS to talk about the several aspects and implications of his work at S-4.  Bob Lazar says he was initially introduced to work at S-4 by Dr. Edward Teller. His tasks consisted in the scientific investigation of the propulsion system of one of nine disc-shaped aircraft, as a general part of the ongoing reverse engineering project taking place at S-4.

Upon first sight, Lazar thought the saucers were secret, terrestrial aircraft, whose test flights must have been responsible for many UFO reports. Gradually, on closer examination and from having been shown multiple briefing documents, Lazar came to the conclusion that the discs must have been of extraterrestrial origin. In his filmed testimony, Lazar explains how this impression first hit him after he boarded the craft under study and examined their interior.

For the propulsion of the studied vehicles, Bob Lazar explains how the atomic element 115 served as a nuclear fuel. Element 115 (nicknamed 'Ununpentium' (Uup)) reportedly provided an energy source which would produce anti-gravity effects under proton bombardment along with the production of antimatter used for energy production. As the intense strong nuclear force field of element 115's nucleus would be properly amplified, the resulting effect would be a distortion of the surrounding gravitational field, allowing the vehicle to immediately shorten the distance to a charted destination  This is quite similar to a hypothetical Warp drive.

Lazar elaborates how he was given introductory briefings describing the historical involvement by extraterrestrial beings with this planet for 10,000 years. The beings originate from the Zeta Reticuli 1 & 2 star system and are therefore referred to as Zeta Reticulians, popularly called 'Greys'.