"The Aerospace Patron of the Paranormal" · b. 1944
Robert Thomas Bigelow was born in 1944 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He made his fortune in real estate and budget hospitality — founding the Budget Suites of America chain — before pivoting to aerospace through Bigelow Aerospace, founded in 1999, which developed expandable habitat modules for the International Space Station (the BEAM module, launched 2016). He has consistently stated that his interest in UAP was ignited by the account of his grandparents, who had a close encounter with a craft near Las Vegas in the 1940s, an experience they described as terrifying and real.
Bigelow is famously private and media-shy, making his 2017 60 Minutes interview — in which he declared himself absolutely convinced that extraterrestrials were present on Earth — all the more remarkable. He funds his research privately and has never sought public validation of his conclusions.
In 1995, Bigelow founded the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), staffing it with PhDs, former intelligence officers, and law enforcement professionals to rigorously investigate UAP, animal mutilations, and associated phenomena. NIDS operated from Las Vegas and published peer-reviewed papers as well as internal reports circulated to government contacts.
In 1996, Bigelow purchased the Sherman Ranch — now universally known as Skinwalker Ranch — in the Uinta Basin of Utah, a property that had become notorious among local ranchers for cattle mutilations, poltergeist activity, UAP sightings, and encounters with anomalous entities. NIDS deployed a full-time residential team of scientists to instrument the ranch and document the phenomena, spending millions of dollars over nearly a decade. The programme was described in detail by journalist George Knapp and NIDS scientist Colm Kelleher in Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005).
The NIDS Skinwalker investigation concluded, ambiguously, that the phenomena were real, highly anomalous, and appeared to be intelligently controlled — but resisted any definitive classification. The phenomenon seemed to respond to observation and appeared to deliberately confound systematic study.
In 2008, the Defence Intelligence Agency awarded a $10 million contract to Bigelow's Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) to conduct research under what would later be identified as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). BAASS produced dozens of technical reports on exotic propulsion, materials science, and the physiological effects of UAP on witnesses — documents that became known as the DIA's "Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Programme" (AAWSAP) deliverables. These reports, portions of which have been released to researchers, represent the most sophisticated government-funded investigation of UAP since Project Blue Book.
Bigelow's role as both private patron and government contractor placed him at the centre of the UAP disclosure network. His facilities reportedly stored physical materials associated with UAP encounters — a claim referenced by Luis Elizondo and reported in the New York Times' 2017 UAP exposé. He sold Skinwalker Ranch in 2016 to another group of investors, who have since made the property the subject of a television series.
"I'm absolutely convinced. That's all there is to it."