Rachel is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States.

[3] As the closest settlement to the Nellis Air Force Range and Area 51, Rachel enjoys a modest celebrity status, particularly among aviation enthusiasts and UFO hunters.

On July 10, 1986, at about 4:10 pm, two F-16s of the Norwegian Air Force collided in mid-air while participating in Red Flag exercises near Rachel.

The pilot of the downed fighter had ejected safely before the crash, and the other F-16 made it back to Nellis Air Force Base.

The pilot of the downed F-16 suffered only minor injuries, and was transported from the crash site within 20 minutes of the incident by a U.S. Air Force helicopter.

In 1995, the Rachel Baptist Mission moved into a permanent building at the same site that it had occupied previously.

[10] Constructed in early November, it took six days to assemble the 65,000 colored tiles on 87,500 square feet (8,130 m2) of flat desert terrain.

Rachel was featured in an episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends which covered the UFO subculture.

Rachel was mentioned in a two-part episode of The X-Files entitled "Dreamland", in which a secret agent aware of the hidden backstory of the show, played by Michael McKean, resided in the town and in which it is portrayed as much larger, and more suburban than it is in reality.

In 1996, the producers of the movie Independence Day gave the town a time capsule, which is installed near the inn and is intended to be opened in 2050.

[year needed] Rachel receives 5.5 inches (139 mm) of precipitation, with the climate being consistently dry like the rest of the Great Basin.

The Area 51 Research Center, a small UFO souvenir shop, closed in the fall of 2001.

The community's only gas station went out of business[17] in the winter of 2006–07, shortly after being acquired by a new owner, an investor from California.

The Alien Cowpoke is a specialty shop located in Rachel, NV (along the Extraterrestrial Highway, in the heart of Area 51).

The business was founded in 2020 and is owned, run and managed by UFO, UAP and Extraterrestrial Enthusiasts.