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Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS)

Industry

Subsidiary of Bigelow Aerospace that executed the DIA AAWSAP contract, investigating UFOs and paranormal phenomena from 2008-2010

Robert T. Bigelow incorporated Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies in January 2008 to pursue U.S. government research contracts. Within months the company won a sole-source $22 million award from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to run the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP).

BAASS was chartered to "identify the next generation of breakthrough aerospace technologies" and to assess any national-security threat posed by unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).12

  AAWSAP Contract Work

ActivityDescription
Data collection hubBAASS built a secure CAPELLA SQL warehouse that ingested 10,000+ global UAP case files, radar tracks, medical records, and biomaterial samples.
Scientific studies38 proprietary Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) on advanced propulsion, metamaterials, and spacetime manipulation were delivered to DIA.
Field investigationsTeams deployed to nearly 100 domestic and foreign incident sites, capturing multispectral imagery and interviewing military witnesses.
Medical & behavioral analysisPartnered with Las Vegas trauma surgeon Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green and epidemiologist Colm Kelleher to study physiological effects on close-encounter witnesses.34

  Research at Skinwalker Ranch

Because Robert Bigelow already owned Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, BAASS integrated continuous surveillance of the property into AAWSAP. High-resolution cameras, magnetometers, and radiation sensors recorded light-sphere intrusions and ionizing-radiation spikes. Program Manager Dr. James Lacatski and ONI analyst Jay Stratton (pseudonym "Jonathan Axelrod") reportedly witnessed a tubular apparition inside the ranch homestead, an event that convinced DIA leadership to widen the study to include poltergeist-like "hitchhiker" effects.56

  Deliverables and DIA Assessment

In 2010 BAASS submitted a 494-page Comprehensive Phenomenology Report summarizing sensor data, medical findings, and threat assessments. A concurrent Historical Study mapped 75 years of worldwide UFO incidents against strategic weapons sites.

DIA's Defense Warning Office judged many findings "of limited intelligence value" and allowed the contract to lapse in 2012, although a smaller off-books cell continued inside the Pentagon as AATIP.7

  Legacy

BAASS played a pivotal role in sparking Congressional interest in UAP research; briefings to Senators Harry Reid, Daniel Inouye, and Ted Stevens were instrumental in securing the original earmark that led to the creation of AAWSAP.

In subsequent years, several Defense Intelligence Reference Documents (DIRDs) produced under the contract were leaked to the public in 2018, and BAASS contractor personnel appeared in the Skinwalker Ranch television series, bringing unprecedented visibility to government-funded paranormal studies.

Much of the BAASS database and methodology was later transferred to the UAP Task Force in 2020 and to AARO in 2022, providing historical baselines and lessons for current government analyses.

  References

  1. Nevada Secretary of State Business Entity File 2008-01-09. ↩

  2. Statement of Objectives – Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, DIA, Aug 2008 (FOIA release 2021-06-05). ↩

  3. Kelleher, Colm & Knapp, George. Hunt for the Skinwalker, 2018 edition. ↩

  4. Green, Christopher C. et al. "Clinical Medical Analysis of UAP Witness Injuries," AAWSAP DIRD #25, 2009. ↩

  5. Lacatski, James T.; Kelleher, Colm A.; Knapp, George. Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 2021. ↩

  6. Interview with Jay Stratton on Weaponized podcast Ep. 32, 2023-05-14. ↩

  7. DIA Inspector General Report IG-2011-0012, "Assessment of AAWSAP Contract Outcomes," redacted extract released via FOIA 2022-11-18. ↩

Published on January 1, 2008

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