Our mission is to bridge the gap, between the hobbyist and the aerospace community, enabling the civilian, working in collaboration with international universities, to have the resources, technology, education and infrastructure resources to open the domain of space exploration for the common man.

Our services, competitions, and launches are not open to the general public. You may need an active LEUP and must have a L-2 or L-3 certification with Tripolli to join us, compete with us, and fly with us. You can be affiliated with a national or international university or institution in partnership with Mavericks. What we do is dangerous, and is not for the general public at large. We do offer Rocket Safar services, for the general public to participate with us, if you are interested in learning about rocketry or becoming certified, but these opportunities are limited in availability, to insure safety. Feel free to contact us if you have interests or need more information.

After more than 25 years as a senior executive and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, Tom got the civilian space bug from a lunch discussion with a number of founders of Xircomm, including Dirk Gates, and has never looked back. Having successfully started and run four high technology ventures, Tom decided to return to his roots in 2002. Tom , having worked for NASA-Ames research laboratories in 1980, decided 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.

Tom built and certified Level 1 in October of 2002, and certified Level 2 in September of 2003. Tom was the director of finance for the 100K altitude program and was the aerodynamic and thermal design engineer of that airframe. Tom specializes in airframe aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, composite materials design, and motor ballistics. His most recent aerodynamic designs for fellow AeroPAC rocketeers swept many Tripoli altitude records in 2006, demonstrating significant performance gains not previously thought possible.

Tom holds a B.S. In Chemical Engineering and a B.S in Radiochemistry and Nuclear Physics, and has completed graduate work in Engineering Management.

Steve enjoys rocketry and photography and especially the pursuit of both in the Black Rock Desert.  Some action photos and video links can be found here.

Steve is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ.com), a leading venture capital firm with affiliate offices around the world and recent exits with Skype and Baidu.

DFJ recently raised the largest energy and cleantech VC fund, DFJ Element.

Steve was the founding VC investor in Hotmail, Interwoven, and Kana. He also led the firm's investments in Tradex and Cyras (acquired for $8B), and in pioneering companies in nanotechnology and molecular electronics. Previously, he 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 (TEM atomic imaging of GaAs), and computer design at HP, the Center for Materials Research, and Mostek.

At Stanford, he finished his BS Electrical Engineering in 2.5 years and graduated #1 in his class. Steve also received an MSEE and MBA from Stanford, and serves as a Co-Chair of the NanoBusiness Alliance.

Dick is an avid R/C enthusiast, and has also been interested in rocketry since grade school. Dick's first HPR launch he attended was BALLS in 2002, which he followed with his L1 flight at the October Skies launch near Bakersfield a couple of months later. During the winter of 2002/2003 Dick built his L2 Rocket which flew successfully the next spring at Aeronaut out at Black Rock. The winter of 2003/2004 Dick built his L3 project which successfully flew to 24,000 ft. at XPRS in 2004.

The last two years (2005 & 2006) 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 ft.

Dick has a BA in Theology from Pacific Union College and a Masters in Divinity from Andrews University.

Ky and his CSXT/GoFast team were the first civilians to successfully launch and fly a rocket out into space, on May 18, 2004.

When Ky was a young boy, his father gave him a book that was printed back in the 1920's. While reading the book, Ky was intrigued by an article that showed a man sitting on top of a rocket on a chair wearing a leather helmet. There was a photo below it showing the man laying on the ground smoldering and the caption read, “and he lived to tell about it.” From that day on, Ky has been fascinated with the fact that you could actually be launched into space with a rocket.

At the early age of 12, Ky was given a Gilbert chemistry set for Christmas.  It wasn't long after that Ky learned how to make black powder, which led to him creating his very first rocket motor. In 1960, Ky built his first rocket-powered vehicle: a rocket-powered motorcycle. In 1969, Ky built a rocket-power snowmobile that made it into the Guinness World Book of Records.  In 12 years, Ky's rocket-powered vehicles set 72 state, national, and international speed records. Overall, Ky has worked on over 200 films, television programs, and commercials, as well as the majority of stunt specials that have been seen on TV over the past 30 years. Literally hundreds of feature articles have been written about Ky and his adventures.

Today, Ky is retired from the world of business, so he can concentrate full time on rocketry. He is the Program Director of “SPACESHOT 2003” -- the grand effort of the Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) to build and launch the first amateur rocket into space. This was successful on May 18, 2004. He also 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 is a payload specialist and design engineer for Payload Specialties, a sounding rocket services organization in Raytown, Missouri. Gene, is also the first civilian rocketeer to successfully fly to the top of the Black Rock FAA altitude Waiver, at 100,000 FT above sea level.

Gene has been flying civilian high powered sounding rockets for 15 years, and has been a member of Tripoli for 10 years. We asked Gene what attracted him to civilian space exploration and high power rocketry.

"In the early days a 2,000ft flight was great, a 5,000ft was amazing, a 20,000ft flight was like a white elephant and just talking about 40,000ft meant you have been heavily drinking more then diet coke. It was not trying to be better then others, but trying to be better then I was yesterday. The education received from attempting such flights was SATISFYING. I have spent many hours studying aerodynamics and I will be the first to say I don't understand all of it, but when you can see your calculations work with your own eyes, it is a good feeling."

"The drive to Black Rock $1,500---One rocket, a comprehensive electronics package & a Q motor $12,000---Watching your rocket disappear for 14 min,viewing 2/3rds of the earth form 100,000+ ft PRICELESS."

Below, is an earthscape photo taken from Gene's sounding rocket, at the 100,000 Ft. MSL FAA waiver above Black Rock, Nevada, September 22, 2007.

Tom is a real estate developer and home builder in the San Francisco Bay area and Lake Tahoe region. Tom'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. He was the founder of the internationally recognized ARLISS rocket competition in conjunction with the Japanese University Space Exploration Consortium (UNISEC) with Bob Twiggs and the Stanford Space Systems Development Laboratories. Tom is also the founder and owner of Rouse-Tech, a licensed manufacturer of Aerotech compatible rocket motor hardware and the CD3 high altitude recovery and Monster Motors rocket technologies. Tom has been involved and flying high powered rockets since 1991, and has held many Tripoli records and certified many of the AeroPAC prefects L-3 flyers. Tom is a Tripoli certification TAP and an AeroPAC board member. He has served as the AeroPAC launch director for 4 years, and as the president of the AeroPAC organization. Tom is a graduate of San Jose State University.

Prof. Twiggs came to Stanford in 1994 from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. During his time there, the Center for Aerospace Technology at Weber State University teamed with other institutions to build and launch the NUSAT 1 satellite (launched by space shuttle Challenger in 1985) and the WEBERSAT satellite (launched by Ariane IV in 1990). WEBERSAT is a ham radio "OSCAR" WO-18 satellite and is still operational. It can be accessed through any OSCAR ham satellite station such as the one available at Stanford.

A consulting professor in Stanford's Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, Professor Robert Twiggs has 20 years of industry experience, including work with high-power microwave amplifiers and as a software engineer, before joining the academic ranks. He spent 10 years at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and more than 10 years at Stanford, where he established the Stanford Space Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL). The first CubeSat, Opal, was launched in 2000; Sapphire in 2001 and QuakeSat in 2003.

Currently, Bob is the head of the Stanford Space Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL).

Bob has a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho and Stanford University, respectively.

William started building and flying rockets when he moved to Reno at age of 13. William used to drive to Black Rock and Lake Winnemucca to launch. Stopped doing rocketry when we moved back to SoCal where I finished high school. BS in Zoology (1975) and MS in Exercise Physiology (1989) UC Davis. Working as a research physiologist since 1981 at UC Davis.

BAR in 1994 when my wife (Julie Ann) decided to go to Medical School and I needed something quiet to keep me occupied in the house at night while she studied. Level 3 since 1999. Set M altitude record on my Level 3 certification flight on an AT Hybrid motor. Attended RRS solid propellant design course. Participated with a subset of Aeropac members who assisted NASA in proofing a new data acquisition system which required us to fly 6” diameter rockets at speeds near Mach2 through a set of goal post-like antenna. These airframes led to the original ARLISS rocket design. I’ve been involved with ARLISS since it’s inception by Tom Rouse and Bob Twiggs. NAR mentor to the TARC competition the first 2 years of it’s existence.