Our Story
Each team member brings experience to the project with their special talents and a wealth of enthusiasm. Tom has been launching rockets with William Walby, Jim and Becky Green, and Gary Rosenfield in the Black Rock Desert since 1999.
Tom and Gary have become lifelong friends after meeting in the Black Rock Desert in 1999. Gary is the founder of ISP (Industrial Solid Propellent) and now produces millions of dollars of motors for the hobby market, commercial markets and the military. One of the most likeable and talented people you will ever meet.
Dr. Peri Papadopoulos is a world leader in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and is a tenured Professor at SJSU. Tom and Peri have spent over fifteen years together teaching rocketry to students at SJSU.
Vova Zhukov and Osiris Zamudio are SJSU grad students in Aerospace Engineering, Tom taught them two years ago while teaching a course at SJSU. Vova and Osiris are team leaders in the Space Port competition where 160 Universities from around the world meet and compete with launching sophisticated rockets with scientific payloads!
The THOR project started when Tom decided to expand on the two previous flights and build a rocket to travel higher. Since the two previous flights were a total success, THOR was based on this, with larger booster motors. Thor was born.
Tom started to build the two high altitude rockets (THOR 1 and THOR 2) with Becky and William. In
addition, our team has spent the past 10 months designing and building THOR 1 and THOR 2- THOR 1 is complete and ready for launch with your help of funding the launch tower.
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