The sky isn't the limit for Robert Bigelow. Bigelow, founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace, has aspirations well beyond Earth's atmosphere: Bigelow is building and launching space habitats that he says could someday serve as the foundation for a colony on the moon. Space captured Bigelow's imagination at an early age. The Las Vegas High School graduate was intrigued as a child by family stories of close encounters with unidentified flying objects. Bigelow eventually made his fortune the Las Vegas way — in real estate, developing hotels, motels and apartment complexes in the 1980s and '90s. But that construction was a means to starting a space-exploration company. In 2001, Bigelow launched Bigelow Aerospace. Today, the company has factories in North Las Vegas and Maryland, and a deal with California-based Space Exploration Technologies to put habitats into orbit. It's working with Boeing to develop a spacecraft to take crews to the International Space Station, and it launched two satellites into orbit using Russian rockets. In January, Bigelow Aerospace became the first local business to win a lead NASA contract, a $17.8 million deal to build, launch and install its Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) at the space station. Answer: It was a very small community. Nobody locked their doors. Also, the Korean War was active. I remember squadrons of aircraft flying over the city, approaching Nellis. And, of course, nuclear bombs were a big thing. It was fun to watch them go off in both the daytime and the nighttime. If we were in class, we were let out into the schoolyard to see the bombs go off and to watch the mushroom clouds. Answer: My fantasy was to be involved in something to do with space. I think that emanated from activities and conversations of family members, friends and parents of friends who talked about the UFO subject. So it was a significant leap beyond watching nuclear bombs. Answer: No bucks, no "Buck Rogers." You could take the path of science and work your way theoretically into that world as an individual, but I had fantasies of having the financial capacity to hire a group to make something happen. Answer: A lack of focus by our country on space transportation. Transportation is not what we (at Bigelow) do. We focus on the destination. But there's no destination without transportation. NASA didn't plan ahead. They shut down a 30-year-old transportation system, the space shuttle, which they probably should have done because the system became dangerous. But they never came up with a replacement. They initiated several programs, but cut those programs before they concluded. NASA found itself in a desperate situation where the United States of America had invested $100 billion in the International Space Station, but had no way to get there. So they had to contract with Russia, who has the only transportation today that can take anyone to the space station. NASA pays $63 million a person to get someone to the space station. Now NASA has to sponsor private-sector programs to provide space transportation. Also, the recession interfered with potential customers, which were countries that had to rethink their financial picture. A lot of them fell on hard times, and many of them almost went broke. Like us with sequestration, they're willing to sacrifice military defense to maintain entitlement programs in a 100 percent capacity. It's illogical. You need balance in budget cuts and taxation. Other countries faced the same circumstance, where they had to choose between butter and guns. Space programs were not foundational to their existence. Answer: It was a three-year overnight success. It was bit anticlimactic, to be honest. It took a long time to work on the contractual aspects. We are excited and proud to work with NASA. For NASA, $18 million is not a lot of money, but it is significant because it's the first expandable system NASA has ever flown. But this contract was never the end goal. It's a stepping stone to where we want to be. What we have been working on for the better part of the last year doesn't have much to do with the BEAM contract, and is far more significant. Answer: Flying two Genesis missions were significant achievements. Both of those launches occurred out of Russia. America couldn't provide anything that would launch those spacecraft. Also, the BEAM is a big accomplishment. It helped validate our technology and the quality of our workmanship. It proved to us that we can build a spacecraft. Answer: Our objective is to continue to create spacecraft that are habitable and safe to occupy in low-Earth orbit. We want robust business in those structures. Ultimately, we'd like to be part of the development of a lunar base. Answer: We behave as both a general contractor and in-house fabricator. We make about 50 percent of everything in our spacecraft in-house. The other 50 percent we subcontract out. I think there are a lot of opportunities. We have worked with companies in Clark County, so I think there's some synergy here. I think we could be part of a core of aerospace companies in Las Vegas that could have a significant presence. The jobs we provide are high-paying jobs. We require well-educated people, and it's an exciting world and business to be involved in. I know (Gov. Brian Sandoval) is interested in ramping up aerospace's presence in the state under the auspices of diversification. Diversification is always wise. We understand gaming competition in Macau, and in other states that have gaming now, so Las Vegas and Nevada need to bring in other industries to diversify and stabilize the economy. Answer: It's unimaginable that we could be so egocentric that such a thing would be debatable. It's not a question of whether intelligent life is out there. If you do serious research, you can get confirmation of the existence of intelligence. We're still, as a very immature, space-fearing species, scratching the surface of Mars to establish something is there. It would be extremely peculiar if we were to not discover intelligent life equal to or better than ourselves. It's very illogical, parochial thinking. Answer: It would be the chance of a lifetime. But as the CEO, it's important to keep everything moving. So at least in the short run, I have to plan on continuing to go to work as I have been doing, and continuing with our future goals. Name: Robert Bigelow. Position: Founder and president, Bigelow Aerospace. Education: Bachelor of science in business administration, University of Arizona. Quote: "We could be part of a core of aerospace companies in Las Vegas." Work history: Investments in real estate; apartment construction; founded Budget Suites of America, 1987; founded Bigelow Aerospace, 1999. Hobbies: Target shooting, movies, travel, reading, snowskiing, fishing on his Montana ranch, spending time with family. Favorite book: Science or history books, particularly cosmology-related books; "Killing Lincoln" and "Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly. Hometown: Las Vegas. In Las Vegas since: 1944. Bigelow Aerospace is at 1899 W. Brooks Ave. It can be reached at 456-1606.