The below are the only files that come up when seeking FBI records on Bigelow Aerospace, or one of its subsidiaries, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (or BAASS). Oddly, this specific request below was for BAASS records, but only after a December 2017 FOIA request (case 1392073-000) was closed with “no records” seeking out records on Bigelow Aerospace. This particular request, again, was specifically for BAASS (case 1506800-000) but it came up referencing “Bigelow Aerospace,” the topic of the previously denied request. No mention of BAASS on the unredacted material.

Regardless of the explanation for why that happened, the more interesting part is that noted at the bottom of the response letter, is the fact that the FBI believed there were more documents — they just can’t find them — as they seem to be lost.

The record that did get released, which you can see below, references an FBI file/case number in their files, which has been requested by The Black Vault. This page will be updated when that is released, if at all.

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FBI Files Mentioning Bigelow Aerospace [6 Pages, 1MB]

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The post FBI Files Mentioning Bigelow Aerospace first appeared on The Black Vault.

Premieres October 29th, 2021 @ 5p Pacific / 8p Eastern

Since December of 2017, we have all been told a story… a story about a $22 million “Secret Pentagon UFO Study” and the man who ran it.

But now, nearly four years later, a new book has has turned much of this story upside down.

According to this book, those original stories were all wrong. And what we thought we knew, is not the case. This new book, according to page 160 anyway, aims to simply “correct the record.”

But does it? Should we dismiss the old claims and make room for the new ones? Although not all the original claims are being challenged, which do we choose TO believe and which do we choose NOT to believe?

This is the story about why for the past nearly four years, the saga that has involved AATIP, AAWSAP, UFOs, a ranch in Utah infested by the paranormal, and multiple former government personnel — is still riddle with confusion and lingering quest ions — even with this new book that aims to correct the record.

Stay tuned… you’re about the journey Inside The Black Vault.

The post AAWSAP & AATIP: Why Confusion Continues To Reign and Questions Continue To Linger first appeared on The Black Vault.

In the past week, a claim that the Pentagon had admitted to having UFO debris, and that they released the test results, began circulating social media channels and some mainstream media publications. Ultimately only gaining traction within tabloid style newspapers known for sensationalized headlines and wild claims; the overall story was easily debunked rather quickly. But, that brief attention to an outlandish claim revived interest in a different story from 2017, which is when the NY Times said that “metal alloys… had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena [UAP]” giving many the impression that specially modified buildings in Las Vegas, Nevada, were being used to store and test the unknown material. But, did these secret warehouses actually store the material? And if not; does it even exist?

The Legend Begins

On December 16, 2017, Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean wrote the explosive article, “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.” This trio of journalists profiled the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was what they called the “Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.”  Within that article, buried thirty-one paragraphs below their masthead, was a bombshell allegation that specially modified buildings were being used to house debris obtained from Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), or what they called, UAPs.

“Under Mr. [Robert] Bigelow’s direction, the company [Bigelow Aerospace] modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. [Luis] Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena,” the article outlined. “Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes.”

As a result of writing this, many who read the story, along with news outlets who critiqued it, believed this to indicate that “metal alloys” from UAPs were actively being stored within these buildings. This claim was touted throughout many publications, which in turn helped create a more than three yearlong UFO legend about pieces of “metal” from unknown craft housed within secret warehouses in Las Vegas. Outlets who covered that angle included Scientific American, Live Science, New York Magazine, Vice News, Space.com, Popular Mechanics, The Independent, Deadspin, and many others, which all conveyed the NY Times’ claim about “metal alloys” and the buildings they resided in.

The Clarity

However, despite the seemingly incontrovertible claim put forward by the NY Times about the alloys, and the lack of any known legitimate opposition to what was printed; it is now being clarified by those intimately involved with the overall storyline here more than three years later.

The Black Vault received word this week from Mr. Luis Elizondo, the man who says he headed the AATIP program prior to his retirement from the Department of Defense (DoD). He felt the quote from the NY Times may have been confusing to some, after seeing it cited in an article last week on this website.

“Buildings were constructed to house material. Meaning, if Bigelow were to collect material, they would then be stored at the modified buildings,” Elizondo told The Black Vault in an e-mail. “I never said HE DID indeed collect material for AAWSAP. As I have always stated, I was part of AATIP, and had little to do with AAWSAP.”

AAWSAP was the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program, a program that according to Elizondo, differs from AATIP. Where AAWSAP, also according to Elizondo, focused on a broad-spectrum view of the paranormal and was spearheaded by Bigelow Aerospace’s subsidiary called BAASS; AATIP focused on more of the “nuts and bolts” of UAPs which Elizondo headed while working within the Pentagon.

The NY Times never mentioned AAWSAP in their original reporting, even though their claims were more about this program rather than the referenced AATIP.

And Then There Was None

With Elizondo denying having ever said Bigelow housed UAP material, that leaves the other part of the NY Times’ claim that “program contractors” had also confirmed the storage of the mysterious alloys. As has been established, Bigelow would be the overall contractor related to AAWSAP, and by chance, he recently addressed the UFO “metal alloy” claim in a video interview just weeks ago.

In a one-on-one discussion with George Knapp of MysteryWire.com, Bigelow was asked point blank about the claim. “NY Times reported that you modified your facility here in order to house some material from somewhere else. Did you ever have it?” Knapp asked. Bigelow simply responded, “We never had any.”

To further confirm that no contractor informed the NY Times about the pieces of UAP housed at Bigelow Aerospace, The Black Vault also reached out to Dr. Hal Puthoff. Puthoff is the President & CEO of EarthTech International, and at this time, served as a contractor and the “Senior Science Advisor” to BAASS during the AAWSAP. When asked about the statements given by Bigelow and Elizondo regarding the UAP debris being acquired and studied during the AAWSAP; Puthoff’s brief response to The Black Vault was that “their statements are correct.”

The Contradictions

The Black Vault also reached out to the journalists who wrote the original claim that has become more controversial rather than incontrovertible. Leslie Kean was the only to respond directly, and believes that The Black Vault “mischaracterized” what they originally wrote.

“You mischaracterized what we said. We did not write that Bigelow had collected material through AAWSAP or that Bigelow ever had material at all,” Kean said in a direct message on Facebook. “We said that Bigelow Aerospace modified buildings so that they could store materials recovered from what contractors told us had been retrieved from unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Although Blumenthal and Cooper did not respond directly to The Black Vault’s requests for comment, a December 17, 2017, interview of Blumenthal with MSNBC not only provides additional context of the claims made by the NY Times, but it also confuses the situation further.

Contrary to Kean’s statement that the NY Times never said Bigelow’s buildings had the material but rather just modified them in preparation; Blumenthal recounted a rather detailed story about “material” being studied by scientists during this program. In fact, he did so while speaking specifically about the Pentagon’s “UFO program” and his co-authored NY Times article about AATIP. He calls back to the only section of their article that deals with material, which is where the three authors of the piece specifically wrote about specially modified buildings at Bigelow Aerospace, which were modified solely to house the UAP “metal alloys.”

“They have, as we reported in the paper, some material from these objects that is being studied so that scientists can find what accounts for their amazing properties, this technology of these objects, whatever they are,” Blumenthal told MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian. “They are studying it. It’s some kind of compound that they don’t recognize.”

It appears based on Blumenthal’s interview with MSNBC, two of the three co-authors of the article seem to disagree with what facts they were both originally reporting.

But, despite the seeming contradiction, Blumenthal stands by what he said. Although he did not respond to The Black Vault directly, Kean passed on a statement when she was asked about the contradiction.

“Leslie earlier responded for both of us. What I said on MSNBC is accurate and I’m not going beyond that. No further comment.”

When asked for further clarification on how both Kean’s and Blumenthal’s statements could both be true; Kean did not respond by the publish date of this article. (Any follow ups submitted will be added here)

To make matters even more confusing, the truth behind the “metal alloys” reported in 2017 would become even more elusive as time went on. Two and a half years after Blumenthal’s 2017 interview with MSNBC; he and Kean appeared together on a YouTube channel called “Project Unity” in a joint interview on July 25, 2020. In this interview, Blumenthal seemed to change his previous version of the story about what was really housed in Las Vegas.

“We did report that Robert Bigelow, who was a contractor on the program and was close to Harry Reid who got the money for the program, built a warehouse to hold retrieved materials. That was in the story,” Blumenthal said. “That’s as far as we got. That’s as much as we could find out at the time.” Blumenthal then goes on to state that since their original article, they learned that “… no materials were provided,” and that “… they never were put into the warehouse.”

It is unclear why the detailed story about materials and testing conveyed to MSNBC in 2017 was omitted, and the 2020 shifted to saying that no material was ever housed in Las Vegas or even given to Bigelow for the AAWSAP.

“Many Millions” Of Dollars

If three major players in the saga of AAWSAP and AATIP all agree there were no “metal alloys” in Las Vegas, then why were the buildings modified in the first place? The price tag to do such a remodel, according to Bigelow, was into the “millions” of dollars.

“We had bought facilities, spent many millions of dollars in buying buildings and I did have a large program to do a major construction on this property besides what we already have here and that was going to be really fun and cool, ” Bigelow told MysteryWire.com when asked about the NY Times article and the work Bigelow did through the AAWSAP. “So we would have nothing that would protrude the surface much, I was going to use life support systems that you use in space because you don’t have a door you can go out of or a window you can put up. So you survive based on the ecosystem the environmental control support systems that you create on board your stations. And so I was going to actually implement those into the underground facility which was going to be substantial and so that was a lot of fun to to do.”

If the NY Times article was right about building modifications for UAP material, but just incorrect with the impression that material was actually being stored there, why would Bigelow Aerospace need artificial ecosystems and “environmental control support systems” in an underground facility in order to house these “alloys” and other pieces of debris? Who informed Bigelow he would be getting material to spark a project spending “many millions of dollars” in preparation for its arrival? Were the modifications done with taxpayer dollars out of the $22 million reportedly going to Bigelow Aerospace for the AAWSAP contract?

The answers to these questions are unknown.

The Black Vault has reached out to Bigelow Aerospace numerous times in the past couple of years regarding AAWSAP and the claims by the NY Times in 2017. Those requests have all been ignored to date.

There is UFO Material – But Where?

With a muddied past of reporting on UFO or UAP material; it might reinvigorate you to know there actually is material out there from unknown craft, and it is documented within the archives of the US government. Although some of that documentation goes back decades, it is documented none-the-less. But what about today? Is the US government and military actively hiding UFO artifacts and testing them?

That answer, is hard to come by. In a May 31, 2019, interview between Elizondo and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson; that truth may have started to reveal itself, even if just for a moment.

“Do you believe based on your decade of serving in the US government on this question, that the US government has in its possession any material from these aircrafts?” Tucker Carlson asked. With clear hesitation to answer, Elizondo stated simply, “I do, yes.” Carlson quickly followed up. “You think the US government has debris, from a UFO, in its possession right now?” And it was that question that sparked Elizondo to close the door on going any further. “Unfortunately, Tucker, I really have to be careful of my NDA [Non-Disclosure Agreement]. I really can’t go into a lot more detail than that. But, simply put, yes.”

Shortly after Elizondo’s appearance on FoxNews, he did an interview with Alejandro Rojas and OpenMinds.tv. During this, Elizondo brought up his reference to the materials in possession of the US government on his own accord, which prompted an interesting exchange.

“Now, I did state for the record when I was asked on, on a recent interview by Tucker Carlson, do I believe that material exists? Um, I stand, absolutely stand by that statement, but I unfortunately, I don’t think I can elaborate more on that,” Elizondo affirmed. Rojas added, “Right. And to clarify, I mean, you believe that likely does exist, but it’s not like something you can prove.” Elizondo responded, “I didn’t say that. I just, I’m going to probably politely, deflect that question.” Thus the door was closed again.

Elizondo has further clarified with The Black Vault, that his assertion about “material,” comes from “real information not related to AAWSAP.” Where, or what, that material is remains a mystery.

Will We Ever Know?

There is no telling if, or when, the US government will come clean on if they truly hold UFO debris. The powers that be have had a long, documented, history of covering up the full story for quite some time, whatever that full story actually is.

However, despite the general public’s frustration of not knowing the big picture and what the ultimate truth actually is, there is one crucial aspect to getting to that point: accuracy. Accuracy in reporting, and accuracy from those conveying the stories.

As proven in the past couple of weeks, numerous erroneous claims about UFO debris have circulated and are easily debunked. Couple that with newly revealed clarity that partially tarnishes claims published three years ago by the NY Times, it becomes a murky bog of unsubstantiated rumors and unclear assertions.

On the surface, many stories seem clear, concise, and mind-blowing. Yet, once challenged, many stories fall apart. And those that haven’t yet; they become heavily questioned.

Maybe that is the plan. Maybe this is all part of massive disinformation campaign spearheaded by the US intelligence community which has succeeded in confusing the general public to the point of simply believing nothing. Or, maybe, it’s all a necessary part of a well-orchestrated and finely-crafted strategy which leads us all on a step-by-step path to “disclosure” where mistruths are sprinkled in with absolute truths in order to progressively get the general public to believe. Or, maybe it is something else entirely.

Whatever may be at the root of this all, in the end, no one still has the right answer. At least, not yet.

###

Additional Quotes, Published In Full

The post The UFO Legend of Unknown “Metal Alloys” Housed in a Secret Las Vegas Warehouse first appeared on The Black Vault.

Since Bigelow Aerospace and Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) was mentioned as being a part of the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP)program, I had recalled that many FAA manuals had BAASS listed as a place of contact for commercial pilot UFO reports.

The dates that Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS entered into the manuals very much coincide with the start of the AATIP program.  Prior, the manuals reference Bigelow Aerospace’s previous project called NIDS starting in 2002.  However, all references to Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS have been removed, which coincides with the actual cancellation of the AATIP program (although this ‘cancellation’ date that is controversial, since Mr. Elizondo has gone on the record saying the program continued). It appears, however, that the removal of Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS from the FAA manuals coincides completely with this cancellation date.  The FAA now recommends contacting private organizations like the National UFO Reporting center to report their sightings.

In January of 2018, I requested under the FOIA all communications between Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS and the FAA.  I received a stack of communications on March 23, 2018, which include most of the communications about the change of contact within the FAA manuals.

Surprisingly, there were no other communications.  What I intended, was to get a hold of any reports that may have come in to the FAA, and forwarded to Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS.  By the below FOIA release, nothing was ever forwarded from 2005 on.

So, it appears that if anything was reported during this time frame, it went directly to Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS.  Sadly, in THIS specific case, all of those reports from any commercial pilot made DIRECTLY to Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS, would never be subject to the FOIA (unless Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS included any of the reports they received in any documents they submitted under their AATIP contract.  That is still being determined.).

Regardless of the fact that I didn’t quite find what I was looking for, it still is an interesting look into the fact that the FAA had this in their manuals to report to Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS, but then had removed it.

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FAA Manuals and Bigelow Aerospace

The FAA manuals can serve as an important clue when it comes to AATIP’s cancellation, or in fairness, at least the involvement of Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS. The following is a breakdown of various manuals, and dates, that reference Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS, and then when the manuals were updated wherein they do not.

 ORDER JO 7110.65X, October 17, 2017 – NO Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS Reference [614 Pages, 5MB]
 ORDER JO 7110.65W, December 10, 2015 – NO Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS Reference [729 Pages, 5MB]
 ORDER JO 7110.65V, April 3, 2014 – NO Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS Reference [660 Pages, 15.8MB]
—-> AATIP was (allegedly) cancelled in 2012
 ORDER JO 7110.65U, February 9, 2012 – Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS Reference [606 Pages, 3.4MB]
 ORDER JO 7110.65T, February 11, 2010 – Bigelow Aerospace/BAASS Reference [602 Pages, 5MB]
—-> See the above email exchanges between Bigelow Aerospace and the FAA to change the NIDS reference to BAASS
 ORDER JO 7110.65S, February 14, 2008 – Bigelow Aerospace/NIDS Reference [591 Pages, 4.8MB]
 ORDER 7110.65R, February 16, 2006 – Bigelow Aerospace/NIDS Reference [622 Pages, 5MB]
 ORDER 7110.65P, February 19, 2004 – Bigelow Aerospace/NIDS Reference [599 Pages, 4.3MB]
 ORDER 7110.65N, February 21, 2002 – Bigelow Aerospace/NIDS Reference [578 Pages, 20.7MB]
 ORDER 7110.65M, February 21, 2002 – NO UFO Reference at all [528 Pages, 14.6MB]

The post The Bigelow Aerospace (NIDS and BAASS) UFO Connection with the FAA first appeared on The Black Vault.