Robert Bigelow

From the late 1960s[7] through the 1990s, Bigelow developed commercial real estate hotels, motels and apartments.[8]

In his real estate career, Bigelow built approximately 15,000 units and purchased another 8,000. For most of his career, "he held on to almost everything he bought, but ... eventually unload[ed] much of his housing stock in the boom years immediately before the 2008 crash". In 2013, Bigelow reflected on this: "People just really wanted to throw money away, so that was lucky."[7]

Bigelow owns Budget Suites of America, an extended-stay apartment chain founded in 1987.[9] It caters to budget travelers needing to stay for an extended period. Its rooms are primarily suites featuring a full kitchen. Budget Suites owns three hotels in Phoenix, Arizona; five in Las Vegas, Nevada; ten in Dallas, Texas; and one in San Antonio, Texas.[10]

In 1999, Bigelow founded Bigelow Aerospace.[11]

Bigelow had indicated he planned to spend up to US$500 million to develop the first commercial space station with a goal of the station costing 33% of the US$1.5 billion that NASA expended on a single Space Shuttle mission.[12][13] Bigelow Aerospace has launched two experimental space modules, Genesis I in 2006 and Genesis II in 2007, and had planned for full-scale space habitats to be used as orbital hotels, research labs and factories.[14]

In 2013, Bigelow indicated that the reason he went into the commercial real estate business was to obtain the requisite resources to be able to fund a team developing space destinations.[8] In October 2017, Bigelow announced that he planned to put an inflatable "space hotel" into orbit by 2022.[15] The plan was part of a partnership with United Launch Alliance, and the project was estimated to cost US$2.3 billion in total. The cost of a 3-day stay in this spatial hotel was estimated at 5 million dollars.[16]

In April 2016, Bigelow's BEAM module was launched to the International Space Station[8] on the eighth SpaceX cargo resupply mission.[17]

In March 2020, Bigelow Aerospace laid off all 88 members of staff and halted operations after over 20 years of business, in a move that was partially caused by the coronavirus pandemic.[18]

In March 2021, he sued NASA for US$1.05 million, alleging he was not paid according to contract for product testing and development.[19]

In 1995, Bigelow founded the National Institute for Discovery Science to fund the research and study of various fringe sciences and paranormal topics, most notably ufology.[20] The organization researched cattle mutilation and black triangle reports, ultimately attributing the latter to secretive advanced aircraft operated by the military.[21] The institute was disbanded in 2004.

In 1996, Bigelow purchased Skinwalker Ranch, a 512-acre cattle ranch located in Utah that is the site of purported paranormal phenomena, such as inter-dimensional shape-shifters.[22]

In December 2017, Bigelow was reported by the New York Times to have urged Senator Harry Reid to initiate what became the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a government study which operated from 2007 to 2012 tasked with the study of UFOs.[23][24] According to the New York Times, Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that extraterrestrial life exists and that extraterrestrials have visited Earth.[25]

In June 2020, Bigelow founded the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies to support investigations into life after death.[5] In January 2021, he put up an award of US$1 million for anyone who could demonstrate the existence of a life after death.[26]

Bigelow has made political donations to conservative Republican candidates.[29][30] In July 2022, he donated $10 million to Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, which was the single biggest donation of his re-election bid.[31][32] Bigelow has contributed over $25 million[33] to groups and causes supporting Joe Lombardo's candidacy for governor of Nevada. Campaign finance experts believe this may be the most a single donor has spent on a statewide race in modern history.[34]