Rocketry Planet

EL DORADO HILLS, California USA — A new rocketry organization promises to bridge the gap between the upper certification levels offered by national hobby rocketry organizations and civilian rocketry/space exploration.  Once the challenge of becoming certified as a Level 3, where is a hobbyist to go?

If an individual is an independent thinker and doer, he can become a maverick.  A rocket maverick, that is.  A group of rocketry enthusiasts who had previously pushed the upper levels of organized hobby rocketry have formed a new organization, Mavericks, for the purpose of giving you the challenge and support to enter the upper realms of the sport.

Rocket Mavericks of El Dorado Hills, California was created to bridge the gap between the rocketry hobbyist and the aerospace community, enabling the civilian rocketeer, while working in collaboration with international universities, to have access to the technology, education and infrastructure resources that can open space exploration for all.

Founded by group organizer Thomas Atchison and such notable hobby rocketry enthusiasts as Steve Jurvetson, Dick Matthews, Ky Michaelson, Gene Nowaczyk, Tom Rouse, Bob Twiggs and William Walby, the team has accumulated numerous accomplishments between them:

• As a senior executive and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for more than 25 years, Tom Atchison caught the civilian space bug from a lunch discussion with a few of founders of Xircomm, including Dirk Gates, and has never looked back. Having worked for NASA-Ames Research Laboratories in 1980, Tom decided in 2002 to pursue his passion for space exploration again, by joining the civilian space race full time, designing and building his own rockets, and organizing the Mavericks.
  
  
• Steve Jurvetson is a managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ.com), a leading venture capital firm with affiliate offices around the world.  Steve was the founding VC investor in Hotmail, Interwoven, and Kana and he also led the firm's investments in Tradex and Cyras, and in pioneering companies in nanotechnology and molecular electronics. Previously, Steve was an R&D Engineer at HP, where seven of his communications chip designs were fabricated. His prior technical experience also includes programming, materials science research, and computer design at HP, the Center for Materials Research, and Mostek.
  
  
• An avid R/C enthusiast, Dick Matthews has also been interested in rocketry since grade school. Dick attended his first high power launch in 2002.  Shortly thereafter he completed his Level 1 flight. Dick finished his Level 2 rocket in 2003, which flew successfully the next spring, followed by his Level 3 flight to 24,000 feet at XPRS in 2004. The last two years, Dick has participated in the ARLISS program, and was an active participant in the To100k Project, a group project which attempted to launch a sustainer to 100,000 feet.
  
  
• Ky Michaelson and the CSXT/GoFast team were the first civilians to successfully launch and fly a rocket out into space, on May 18, 2004. Through the years, Ky has created and run many successful businesses. Today, Ky is retired from the world of business, so he can concentrate full time on rocketry. Ky is a major partner of Orbital Expressways, Inc., a start-up commercial rocketry endeavor with the lofty goal of low-cost space access for everyone.
  
  
• Gene Nowaczyk is a payload specialist and design engineer for Payload Specialties, a sounding rocket services organization in Raytown, Missouri. Gene has been flying civilian high powered sounding rockets for 15 years, and has been a member of Tripoli for 10 years. Gene is also the first civilian rocketeer to successfully fly to the top of the Black Rock FAA altitude waiver reaching 93K feet above sea level.
  
  
• A real estate developer and home builder in the San Francisco Bay area and Lake Tahoe region, Tom Rouse's leadership in the construction and real estate business have gained him national recognition and awards on recent projects. Tom is currently the Tripoli rocket competition and records chairman as well as the founder of the internationally recognized ARLISS rocket competition. Tom is the founder and owner of Rouse-Tech, a manufacturer of rocket motor hardware and the CD3 high altitude recovery technologies.
  
  
• Professor Bob Twiggs is the head of the Stanford Space Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL).  A consulting professor in Stanford's Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, Professor Twiggs has 20 years of industry experience, including work with high-power microwave amplifiers and as a software engineer, before joining the academic ranks.
  
  
• William Walby started building and flying rockets when he moved to Reno at age of 13. After a brief departure from the hobby, he returned and has been certified Level 3 since 1999. William worked with a group of Aeropac members who assisted NASA in proofing a new data acquisition system which required flying 6” diameter rockets at speeds near Mach2 through a set of goal post-like antenna, a program which led to the original ARLISS rocket design.  William is currently a research physiologist UC Davis where he has been since 1981.

Membership in the Mavericks is restricted to individuals who have an active Level 2 or Level 3 certification with either the National Association of Rocketry or the Tripoli Rocketry Association and have and active federal explosives user permit. 

The organization will be holding three classes of competition for members as part of their annual International Civilian Space Competition. According to their website, each class "will consist of specific competition categories, developed to drive the innovation, technology, and solve key problems in areas of civilian space exploration."

1. A Sounding Rocket class competition that focuses on suborbital flight, consisting of four competition categories, with specific competition rules related to deploying scientific and exploration payloads repeatedly above minimum altitudes of 30K, 60K, 100K, and 380K feet.
2. An Earth & Planetary Experimentation class competition which will award prizes based on the development of probes and experiementation payloads that deliever answers to key scientific questions regarding the earth and other plantetary systems.
3. A Planetary Exploration Rover class competition which will award prizes for the development of autonomous and remote telemetry controlled planetary rovers that assist in experimentation and planetary exploration.

The Mavericks already have a couple of launches on their calendar for 2007: a Tripoli certified experimental launch to be held July 11th-14th at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada and their International Civilian Space Competition to be held October 18th-21st also at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.  As an approved experimental prefecture of the Tripoli Rocketry Association, Rocket Mavericks will provide minimal launch insurance coverage at these events.  Everyone in attendance must sign a liability release waiver.

For more information on the Mavericks, visit their website at: http://www.rocketmavericks.com