Robert Bigelow
The Las Vegas aerospace billionaire who bought Skinwalker Ranch, funded private UFO science for decades, and held the Pentagon's $22 million study contract.
Reference note. This guide explains the basics of well-known UFO and UAP cases, people, and claims: what happened, who was involved, and what supporters and skeptics say. Milky Way News takes no position. Further investigation, skepticism, or belief is up to you.
01Who They Are
Robert Bigelow is a Las Vegas real estate magnate and founder of Bigelow Aerospace, the company behind inflatable space-station modules, including one attached to the International Space Station. For 30 years he has been widely described as the largest private funder of UFO and paranormal research in the world.
02Background
Bigelow built his fortune through Budget Suites of America. He has attributed his lifelong interest to his grandparents' close-range 1947 UFO encounter near Las Vegas and has spent, by his own statements, tens of millions on the subject.
03Role in Ufology
He funded university chairs and abduction research in the early 1990s, founded the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) in 1995, and bought Skinwalker Ranch in 1996 as its field laboratory. When the Defense Intelligence Agency's AAWSAP solicitation appeared in 2008, an outgrowth of his friendship with Senator Harry Reid, his company BAASS won the roughly $22 million contract, investigating UAP cases and the ranch itself with government money. His MUFON partnership gave BAASS national case flow for a period. He sold the ranch in 2016 and later redirected funding toward consciousness-survival research through the Bigelow Institute. In a 2017 60 Minutes interview he said he was "absolutely convinced" aliens exist and have visited Earth.
04Key Claims and Contributions
05Criticism and Controversy
Critics called the AAWSAP award cronyism and note that decades of funded research produced no published, peer-reviewed anomaly. Former investigators describe data disappearing into his archives. Supporters answer that he paid for serious inquiry no institution would touch and that the classified-adjacent record remains unreleased, including in PURSUE-era files.
06Where They Are Now
In his 80s as of 2026, Bigelow focuses on consciousness research prizes while remaining ufology's legendary patron.
- 60 Minutes, "Bigelow Aerospace founder says commercial world will lead in space" (May 2017)
- The New York Times AATIP coverage, Dec. 16, 2017
- Knapp and Kelleher, Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005)
- Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies: bigelowinstitute.org↗
Milky Way News Editorial · Reference entry · Last updated September 1, 2026