The Seattle Space Needle is the kind of building that begs to be misunderstood. Standing 605 feet tall with a flying-saucer-shaped top, it looks less like a piece of architecture and more like something that landed while the city wasn’t paying attention. Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, it was designed to embody a “space age” future—sleek, optimistic, and just a little bit weird. The problem? When you design a tower that resembles a UFO on stilts, people are bound to think it’s doing more than just offering panoramic views and overpriced snacks.

Part of the confusion comes from timing. The early ’60s were the golden age of space fever—satellites were circling the globe, astronauts were practicing moonwalks, and every other household appliance seemed to have “astro” in the name. Into this atmosphere arrived the Space Needle, its futuristic silhouette rising over Seattle like mission control for the Jetsons. Tourists didn’t exactly need an announcement from NASA to connect the dots.

The design itself doesn’t help the case for the truth. The saucer top? Clearly a UFO landing pad. The skinny legs? Obviously to minimize alien wind resistance. The rotating restaurant? A clever cover story for a high-tech tracking system scanning the heavens for rogue asteroids or overly curious extraterrestrials. If you squint hard enough, you can practically see a scientist in a silver jumpsuit walking across the deck, clipboard in hand, checking the day’s warp speed calibrations.

In reality, the Space Needle’s mission is far more down-to-earth—literally. It’s an observation tower, a restaurant, and a selfie magnet for tourists. Instead of scientists monitoring deep-space signals, you’ll find diners enjoying a plate of Pacific salmon while the floor slowly spins, giving them a 360-degree view of mountains, water, and, yes, the occasional rain cloud. The only thing it’s “launching” are elevator rides that reach the top in just 41 seconds.

Still, the myth lives on because it’s simply more fun than the truth. Seattleites don’t mind; a little mystery makes their skyline even more iconic. And if the Space Needle keeps a few people wondering whether the city secretly communicates with aliens, that’s fine—after all, every great city deserves a legend, and this one just happens to look like it could fly away at any moment.