Hotel and aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow has an estimated net worth of $1 billion. He is the owner of the hotel chain Budget Suites of America and the founder of Bigelow Aerospace.
Born Robert T. Bigelow in 1945, he grew up in Las Vegas where he attended Highland Elementary. His first exposure to science took place when he witnessed, from a distance, several atomic tests conducted about 70 miles northwest of the city. At the age of twelve, he already decided that his future was in space travel. In 1962, he went to the University of Nevada, Reno to study banking and finance. He graduated in 1967 from Arizona State University.
Immediately after graduation, Mr. Bigelow started his real estate empire. In just a matter of three years, he already owned 100 apartments in Las Vegas and has broken ground on a 40-unit apartment building. Currently, he owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain along with hundreds of other properties. His real estate developments are valued more than $700 million.
In 1999, Robert Bigelow founded the Bigelow Aerospace which has launched two experimental space modules – Genesis I and Genesis II. It is also building a series of inflatable habitats with prototypes currently orbiting the Earth. The full-scale, manned space habitats will be used as orbital hotels, research labs and factories. He is also currently building the BEAM module for launch to the International Space Station.
Bigelow has made agreements to build more of his prototypes with several countries around the world. He is expecting that the first inflatable station will be fully functional by 2016. The amount to be spent for each astronaut to live in the inflatable station for 30 days will be around $28,750,000. His works in the field of aerospace were made through his real estate business which he built to fund a team that develops space destinations.