From CBS, 60 Minutes interview.
The story sparked his obsession, and explains the alien looking out from the side of Bigelow Aerospace. And it made for the kind of conversation you don't ordinarily have with an accomplished CEO.
Lara Logan: Do you believe in aliens?
Robert Bigelow: I'm absolutely convinced. That's all there is to it.
Lara Logan: Do you also believe that UFOs have come to Earth?
Robert Bigelow: There has been and is an existing presence, an ET presence. And I spent millions and millions and millions -- I probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent on this subject.
Lara Logan: Is it risky for you to say in public that you believe in UFOs and aliens?
Robert Bigelow: I don't give a damn. I don't care.
Lara Logan: You don't worry that some people will say, "Did you hear that guy, he sounds like he's crazy"?
Robert Bigelow: I don't care.
Lara Logan: Why not?
Robert Bigelow: It's not gonna make a difference. It's not gonna change reality of what I know.
Lara Logan: Do you imagine that in our space travels we will encounter other forms of intelligent life?
Robert Bigelow: You don't have to go anywhere.
Lara Logan: You can find it here? Where exactly?
Robert Bigelow: It's just like right under people's noses. Oh my gosh. Wow.
The FAA confirmed to us that for years, it referred reports of UFOs and other unexplained phenomena to a company Bigelow owns. He told us he's had his own close encounters, but declined to go into detail.
Robert Bigelow's quirky and he knows it, but when you have as much money as he does, no one -- not even NASA -- seems to care.