Hot fire cells 1 and 2 (Credit: Pickens Innovations)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 17, 2016 (PI PR) – Tim Pickens, a Huntsville aerospace professional and serial entrepreneur, announced today that the most recent company he founded, Pickens Innovations (PI), has expanded its research and development (R&D) and test capabilities for aerospace and commercial product markets.

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By Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Two high profile executives — President Andrew Aldrin and Propulsion Vice Pesident Tim Pickens — have left Bob Richard’s Moon Express, the commercial exploration company that has been one of the favorites to win the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize for landing and operating a rover on the surface.

Meanwhile, the only student-led team in the race, Penn State Lunar Lion, has withdrawn from the prize after an independent review found it could not achieve that goal within the competition’s tight deadline of Dec. 31, 2017.

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Tim Pickens has left is position as vice president of propulsion at Moon Express to become propulsion department manager at Bigelow Aerospace. He is leading the development of Bigelow’s propulsion systems in Huntsville, Ala. Pickens wrote on his blog earlier this month: The Bigelow Aerospace B330 Propulsion Team will design and develop systems for re-boost, docking, attitude control, and other on-orbit maneuvering requirements for missions destined to reposition stations to […]

Tim Pickens

Mountain View, CA, July 16, 2013 (ME PR) — Moon Express, Inc., a lunar resource company, today announced the opening of a Propulsion Development Facility in Huntsville, Alabama that will be key to landing the world’s first commercial spacecraft on the Moon.

The announcement was made by rocket pioneer Tim Pickens, who joined Moon Express as the company’s Chief Propulsion Engineer earlier this year. Pickens made the announcement at the 2013 AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference in San Jose, California, revealing that the company has already successfully met several milestones in its propulsion development plans, including:

• Successfully test firing a “green” 400 pound demo rocket engine, demonstrating the new test facility checkout, as well as testing engine performance, deep throttling, and efficiency
• Developing new mono-prop and bi-prop propulsion systems for the Moon Express lander that range in thrust classes from 0.1-1000 pound thrust
• Investments into new local capabilities including design, fabrication, and remote hot fire test capabilities for “Green” propulsion systems

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Tim Pickens reminisces about the first commercial human spaceflight in 2004 by SpaceShipOne, which was powered by a hybrid engine he designed.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 14, 2013 (ME PR) — Moon Express, Inc., a provider of commercial and scientific missions to the Moon, announced today that award-winning rocket pioneer Tim Pickens has been hired by the company as Chief Propulsion Engineer, responsible for overall propulsion architectures used in Earth departure stages, lunar breaking stages and lander propulsion systems.

Among Pickens’ responsibilities at Moon Express will be to lead its Huntsville office, located near the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Pickens will split his time between the Moon Express Huntsville office and its corporate headquarters at the NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley.

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Huntsville, AL, Dec 20, 2012 (ME PR) – Moon Express, Inc., a provider of commercial and scientific missions to the Moon, announced today it has reached a Teaming Agreement with Dynetics for the acquisition of the Rocket City Space Pioneers (RCSP) Google Lunar X PRIZE Team. The agreement brings the substantial space capabilities of Dynetics to the Moon Express team for the pursuit of commercial lunar missions, and will leverage and carry forward the substantial work done by RCSP supported by its visionary partners: Dynetics, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Andrews Aerospace, Draper Laboratory, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Moog, Huntsville Center for Technology, and Analytical Mechanics Associates.

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“Rocket-Powered Pickup” — December 13 at 9pm ET/PT. The National Geographic Channel. The Rednecks want to create a cheap, reusable rocket-powered truck, and Travis thinks he has the answer: a hybrid rocket engine. It’s rare in the hobby rocket world, but a hybrid rocket has more control because it combines two forms of fuel — a solid and a gas. Any solid substance with carbon can become “rocket fuel” when […]

This week on The Space Show with David Livingston: 1. Monday, July 30, 2011 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome SUSAN HOLDEN MARTIN, Executive Director of The Mars Society. Ms. Martin will update us regarding the upcoming convention and more. 2. Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): We welcome RICHARD DAVID, CEO of New Space Global, LLC to […]

Dynetics PR — Huntsville, Ala. (Jan. 31, 2012) – Today, on the 54^th anniversary of the launching of the Explorer 1 satellite, the Rocket City Space Pioneers (RCSP) invited Alabama public school fourth graders to participate in their mission to the Moon.  RCSP, the Alabama Tourism Department and the Alabama Department of Education unveiled the details of a contest that will allow fourth graders to name RCSP’s Moon-bound lander.  The winning class will get a free trip to Space Camp®, and the teacher will receive a $500 gift card for classroom supplies.

The announcement was made at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center®’s Davidson Center, and the event featured a rocket engine firing and a display of hardware from Rocket City Space Pioneers team members.

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